City in talks for 'short-term' lease with Commander creditors

Cape Girardeau's tumultuous -- and costly -- six-year relationship with Commander Premier was set to come to a close Thursday, the final deadline for the airplane manufacturer to vacate city-owned property on which it has failed to pay $1.2 million in back rent.

On Monday, however, city officials said the financially strapped company probably won't be out of the airport property by then, but that a deal is in the works that would allow one of Commander's creditors to rent the facility until it could claim Commander's assets.

"What's best for the city and what's best for everyone is for there to be a smooth, nonhostile transition and that's what we're trying to accomplish," city manager Scott Meyer said.

Any deal would be short term, no more than 90 days, and require that the rent be paid in advance, Meyer said. The city manager also stressed this would not be a deal with Commander Premier Aircraft Corp., which made only eight of 59 scheduled lease payments since it occupied the 52,000-square-foot hangar in 2005.

"There's no way I would enter into an agreement with Commander after what's happened," Meyer said. "That wouldn't make any sense for us. If Commander had money to pay the rent now, they should have paid the rent then."

Commander president Greg Walker did not return phone calls Monday seeking comment.

Too many variables prevented Meyer from promising Commander would be out by Thursday, he said. He noted the possibility of Commander filing a lawsuit or getting an injunction, though he said he had no knowledge that was the company's intention.

While city leaders have taken heat for allowing the company to occupy the building rent-free for so long, Meyer said it wasn't as simple as chaining the doors.

"It's not that straightforward and easy," he said. "It's a legal process. But my expectation is that we'll have a plan for the transfer of property. How that happens, I don't know exactly right now. But we're working on that plan as we speak."

Mayor Harry Rediger said he didn't believe Commander would be out by this week, either.

"I think it's going to take a little bit of time," Rediger said. "They've got a tremendous amount of inventory and equipment. ... But the end is in sight."

Rediger also praised any deal that would generate some revenue for the city from a building that would otherwise sit empty.

Both Rediger and Meyer said that Commander did not start moving out sooner because the company held out hope until the end that Canadian financier Ronald Strauss would deliver on a promise he had made for more than a year -- that he would secure funding to buy the company and pay the back rent.

Strauss asked Meyer as recently as last week not to evict Commander, saying it would "throw cold water" on his efforts.

The financial burden from the Commander deal largely fell on the shoulders of taxpayers, as the payments toward bonds issued in 2001 to construct the building came from city coffers. Then, in March, the Cape Girardeau City Council paid off the bonds with a portion of the $2 million it received from Isle of Capri in a sale of city-owned land for the company's new casino.

The bond language restricted any tenant at the facility to be a manufacturer of airport-related products, but without the bond limitations, economic developers have said that the building will become more marketable.

No one argued that it's been a frustrating, disappointing experience from a company that arrived with the promise of 100 new jobs and a boon to the economy. Jay Knudtson, who was mayor when the company first came to Cape Girardeau, said he ranks the Commander deal among his biggest disappointments.

"It was a lot of money and it put a terrible strain on the city's budget in some really tough times," Knudtson said.

The city originally issued the $2.8 million in bonds so that it would be eligible for a grant to provide potable water to the city's then-30-year-old industrial park on Nash Road.

"That's now proven to have come at a pretty high cost," Knudtson said. "But the bottom line is this: The city is in an absolutely no-win situation when it comes to dealing with Commander. There's nobody waiting in the wings to move into that building."

smoyers@semissourian.com

388-3642

Pertinent address:

Cape Girardeau Regional Airport, Cape Girardeau, MO