Community Partnership receives $500,000 grant to renovate former Cape police headquarters

After months of waiting, the Community Partnership of Southeast Missouri can finally move ahead with the acquisition of the former Cape Girardeau Police Department headquarters at 40 S. Sprigg St.

On Thursday, Community Partnership executive director Melissa Stickel received a grant agreement by mail for a $500,000 Community Development Block Grant, which the organization has been seeking for nearly a year. The federally funded grant comes from the Missouri Department of Economic Development (DED). 

Renovation

With the grant secured, Stickel said plans for remodeling can move forward. The organization had initially envisioned the completion of the building by late spring or early fall, but now Stickel said it will be a little while longer.

“We anticipate about eight to 12 months of renovation and construction, so we can hope maybe a year from now, so this time next year,” she said of the project. 

The two-story building that will serve as the social service organization’s new home was constructed in 1976 and stands on 1.83 acres bordering South Sprigg, Merriwether and Frederick streets. Stickel said she hopes to close on the building as soon as late next week, and the first order of business will be to open a bid for demolition and construction activities. 

The structure won’t be torn down, she said, but the plan is to gut the inside. 

“The inside’s a hot mess,” she said with a laugh, noting the roof had been leaking for some time and there may be mold concerns. “It’s just easier to go in and gut it and start over.”

Renovations to the building will include roof replacement, build-out of functional office space, flooring, and construction of a 7,000-square-foot activity center. The center will offer essential services, including housing and case management, shower facilities, laundry and day support services for unsheltered people. It will also house a computer lab for the organization’s workforce program, Stickel said, including a satellite job center in partnership with the Workforce Development Board of Southeast Missouri. 

“Given the employment and economic impact [of COVID-19], that’s going to be super important,” Stickel said of the job center. 

The building will also include a community space on the second floor for gatherings and meetings, Stickel said. 

Funding

The Cape Girardeau City Council voted last April to sell the vacant police building to Community Partnership for $100,000. The total project cost is about $1.75 million.

The money from the block grant will go toward construction costs, Stickel said, so a loan is needed to help with startup costs, including the acquisition, the architectural fee and the grant administration.

In order to meet the funding gap, Stickel said Community Partnership had just started to launch a capital campaign when local concerns about COVID-19 began to increase. They’ve secured some pledges, but Stickel anticipates COVID-19 will negatively impact the campaign.

“People with high capacity to give probably have lost money in [the] stock market,” she said, noting she believes the coronavirus will reduce corporate giving as well. 

As a result, some of the “wish list” items will have to wait, she said, such as paving the property’s gravel drive. 

“If we have to take out some gap funding here and there as campaign rolls in, I mean, we’re committed to making this project happen and we’ll do that,” Stickel said. They don’t, however, plan to have loans long-term “because then we won’t be able to provide the services because we’ll have too much overhead cost,” she said.

In mid-February, Community Partnership was awarded $250,000 in tax credits from the DED’s Neighborhood Assistance Program, which helps not-for-profit organizations leverage private-sector funds by providing partial state tax credits to businesses that make contributions to approved community improvement projects, according to ded.mo.gov. 

“If we raise that $500,000 plus this $500,000, then that’s over half of our goal,” she said. 

The future

The location of the former police station was a perfect choice for the resource center, Stickel said, because it offers adequate space for the agency’s growth, the building is already recognizable to the community and it sits in an accessible location for folks with a lack of transportation.

It’s also representative of the partnership that has long been in place between the Community Partnership and the city, Stickel said. 

“We can’t be more thrilled to have been awarded the bid by the city,” Stickel said. “This grant is in partnership with the city, and we have a long history of working together on housing issues and community development.”

While COVID-19 might have an impact on the Community Partnership’s ability to raise funds, Stickel said the need for the services it provides will be even greater once the virus has run its course.

“There’s gonna be some economic impact on our community ... and so the need for our services are going to be even greater on the flip side of all this,” she said. “We anticipate the need increasing as we go forward, but the challenge is making sure the project can be funded.”

Despite the economic concerns posed by COVID-19, Stickel said it is important for folks to remember the future beyond the coronavirus.

“The need in the community, in general, is going to be there past the coronavirus,” she said. “It’s gonna end at some point, and we have to think what’s happening past that and really think about our future, and this is part of it.”