City extends former Broadway Theatre repair order to March

Nearly a year after a fire damaged the former Broadway Theatre building, efforts are still in the works to repair the historic structure.

On Jan. 26, City of Cape Girardeau staff granted the building's owner a 45-day extension to repair the building's front facade.

The extension follows a September hearing where a representative of the city granted the owner 90 days to repair the building's front facade starting late October.

Cape Broadway Theatre, a not-for-profit with a mission to revitalize the former theater, owns the building. Before the 45-day extension, the not-for-profit had until Jan. 25 to stabilize the building's front facade.

A fire in March in the front of the building burned much of its top floor and roof.

No work has been done to repair the building, according to deputy city manager Molly Mehner.

Cape Broadway Theatre board president Suzanne Hightower said it will take approximately $1 million to repair the building's facade and replace the building's damaged roof.

So far, the not-for-profit has raised $15,000. The sum has been used to pay for the services of a historic preservation specialist, architectural fees and company formation, according to Hightower.

The Internal Revenue Service recently approved Cape Broadway Theatre for 501(c)(3) status, according to Hightower. Searches on not-for-profit databases show the organization is classified as a performing arts center.

Six members serve on Cape Broadway Theatre's board: Hightower, Christopher Snider, Marc Fineman, Daniel Myers-Bowman, Ed Crowley and Patrick Koetting.

She said board members have paid $10,000 out of their own pockets for taxes and additional architectural and accounting fees.

Hightower has sought additional funding through grants.

She said she's applied for three $5,000 grants through the National Trust for Historic Preservation and will seek an Amber Grant, a $10,000 grant through WomensNet for women in business. She said she planned to apply for a $50,000 grant through T-Mobile's Hometown Grant Program, an initiative for revitalization projects in small towns.

Some grants require matching funds, for which Cape Broadway Theatre would need donations to its GoFundMe fundraiser. Hightower said the not-for-profit will host another Cape Broadway Theatre festival this summer. A fundraising festival of the same name was held in July.

Mehner said city staff will "assess the progress made and determine the next course of action" after the 45-day extension ends March 11.

"To issue another extension past March 11, we would need the owner to demonstrate success with the various grant applications that would allow work to begin," Mehner wrote in an email to the Southeast Missourian. "And ultimately, we need to see some progress on the building in order to issue additional extensions."

If no progress has been made, city staff may move toward a demolition order for the front portion of the building damaged by fire.

"However, this is a much more complex situation than we typically face because the damaged building abuts another occupied building to the west and the large portion of the theater to the south," Mehner wrote.

"An architect and/or structural engineer would need to ascertain the best way to demolish the damaged portion without adversely impacting the adjoining buildings and help develop bid documents for the demolition," Mehner continued. "Then we would need to bid the demolition and follow the normal bidding process."

Hightower said demolishing the building's damaged entrance and keeping the theater portion of the building would risk losing historical tax credits.

Hightower hopes opening a historical theater would bring more business to Cape Girardeau's downtown area. She said the building could be used as a mixed-use venue for recitals, meetings, community theater and more.

"It's gorgeous inside," Hightower said. "It doesn't look really gorgeous on the outside, but it is very pretty on the inside."

The Broadway Theatre building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2015. It has been on the Cape Girardeau Historic Preservation Commission~s endangered buildings list every year from 2013 to 2021.

Broadway Theatre opened Dec. 24, 1921 and closed Oct. 18, 1960. It reopened in 1970 under Kerasotes Theaters after remodels and a redesign of the building's front. The theater closed again in 1982, reopened in 1992, and then closed for good in 1997, according to previous Southeast Missourian reporting.