COMMERCIAL CONSTRUCTION CLIMBS LOCALLY; NUMBERS INDICATE THAT A RECORD YEAR IS BEING ASSEMBLED

Ground work is under way on one of the largest construction projects to emerge in Cape Girardeau in recent years a four-level, 105,000-square-foot Southeast Missouri Hospital East Clinical Services Building.

Kiefner Brothers Construction Co. of Cape Girardeau, general contractor for the project, started the work Wednesday, taking out the parking lot to the east of the hospital, which is the site of the expansion.

The project, which will be two-and-a-half years in the making, will house new emergency services and radiology departments, expanded surgery and anesthesia services, additional intensive-care beds, and provide a heliport for LifeBeat Air Medical Service.

A total of $13.3 million in contracts have been let: $7.8 million for the general contract, $3.9 million for the mechanical contract, and $1.6 million for the electrical contract.

The hospital project and another in Cape Girardeau could shove commercial construction to a new high in 1992. Earlier this year a multimillion-dollar professional office-retail complex along Mount Auburn Road was announced.

Health Services Corporation of America is building a $7 million-plus complex on a six-acre tract it owns between Doctors Park and West Park Mall. It will include the firm's national headquarters building.

In other industrial news, Lone Star Industries has received a building permit for more than $2 million for a conversion to burn hazardous and non-hazardous wastes in its cement production process at Cape Girardeau.

Interior remodeling work at West Park Mall this year has passed the $140,000 mark; two commercial warehouses account for more than $100,000; and a new office building for the Missouri Division of Employment is nearing completion at a cost of $125,000

Thirty residential permits issued in Cape Girardeau through April add another $3.4 million to construction figures.

More good news is that nationwide, the construction industry is expecting to regain its positive momentum for 1992. The Construction Industry Forecast by the CIT Group-Industrial Financing calls for a turnaround in commercial construction nationwide.

More than 900 contractors and distributors were interviewed. Most respondents were noticeably more optimistic about 1992.

If the first four months is any indication, construction is on a roll in the Cape Girardeau area.

Check the statistics:

Permits have been issued here for 30 homes at a cost of more than $3.4 million. That's an average of more than $110,000 per home.

Permits have been issued for more than $11,000 in commercial construction through the first four months of the year.

The commercial total does not include contracts for more than $19 million for the expansion projects at Southeast Missouri Hospital. Permits will be issued for these projects later.

Permits for more than $7 million have been issued for the HSCA complex, which is expected to house its first occupant this year.

A permit was issued for a 10,000-square-foot expansion adjoining Hartford's in Cape Centre, to house So-Fro Fabrics.

All this could total up to a record construction year for Cape Girardeau.

Commercial construction and remodeling accounted for more than $17.8 million in 1991. Permits for 72 residential homes shoved the figure up another $8 million, for a total of $25.8 million. The 1991 total of $25,809,300 was the highest in the past five years, topping the 1988 figure of $25,779,188 by $30,000, and the 1990 total $292,063.

Not counting the hospital project, permits have already been issued for more than $14.4 million through April.