City of Cape Girardeau sells remaining portion of Business Park

The City of Cape Girardeau has officially sold the remaining portion of the Greater Business Park, located near the interchange of Interstate 55 with East Main Street and LaSalle Avenue, to Touchdown Development Group LLC.

The sale is for a total of $2.7 million with more than $1.8 million upfront and the remaining $850,000 in loan payments from the city to be paid out annually over the next three years.

The city purchased the 247-acre parcel of land in 2012 for $6 million from the Southeast Missouri University Foundation.

Altogether, the city had sold just 44 acres of the land since 2012, with the most recent purchase of 12 acres in 2017 by Drury Development Corp. The parcel sold for nearly $1 million.

City manager Kenneth Haskin did not provide any new comments on the sale to Touchdown, referring to those he made earlier in the fall when it was announced the city was working to sell the land.

"After a thorough cost-benefit review, it has been determined that this is in the city's best interest," Haskin said in a release at the time. "The park is way too expensive for the city to develop on its own. Selling the property to a private developer makes good business sense."

Initial reactions after the city acquired the land from SEMO's foundation were mostly optimistic, with numerous former city officials saying the park would make Cape Girardeau competitive. However, development was sluggish over the next decade and the amount of money needed to make the area competitive far exceeded the city's allocations.

Officials estimated nearly $6 million in additional funds would be needed to get the remaining area of the park "shovel ready." A mere $1.2 million was allocated for that purpose, an amount Haskin said was "not nearly enough" in a June study session with Cape Girardeau City Council members and other city officials.

The city attempted to apply for a federal grant to help acquire the funds to refurbish the remaining portion of the park but were unsuccessful. The U.S. Economic Development Administration said the existing lack of development on the land made the park a weak candidate for grant money.

Touchdown has planned to do a mix of residential and commercial development in the area, according to comments from city officials and the purchase agreement. As part of the city's previous sale to Drury, it was stated in the purchase agreement that Touchdown has no desire to build a hotel in Lot 3 of the Business Park. Drury has right of first refusal to buy the property if a hotel was being developed, but they would also be required to start on construction of a hotel within three years.