CITY STUDIES BANK SITE FOR TOURISM OFFICE

Unless a last-minute hitch develops, the city of Cape Girardeau is poised to pay $150,000 for the former Boatmen's bank at Broadway and Main.

Final approval could come as early as Tuesday's City Council meeting, said David Hodge, senior vice president and Southeast Missouri/Illinois regional executive for NationsBank, the property's owner.

The property has been advertised for sale by Trammell Crow for an asking price of $350,000, said Don Weiss, an agent for Trammell Crow.

Hodge said Thursday the bank is committed to the sale. "We're really interested in doing something good for the city," he said.

Earlier this week, City Manager Michael Miller said the city's legal staff was studying the contract to make sure details of the contract were acceptable.

In mid-June, the city and bank made a verbal agreement giving the city a 60-day option on the building at a sale price of $150,000. City officials said they would inspect the building to make sure it is structurally sound and wouldn't cost too much to fix up to suit its purposes. Miller said this week that the building passed inspection.

If the deal goes through, the city could move the Convention and Visitors Bureau there, use the old drive-up windows for accepting payments of city bills and use the vaults for storing city records, Miller said.

The city could realize some income from the building by renting NationsBank space for an Automatic Teller Machine there, Miller said.

Hodge said the arrangements for an ATM would be "a separate business decision."