Company to move from Cape to Sikeston

After more than 40 years in Cape Girardeau, Do it Best Corp. will move its distribution operation to a new facility in Sikeston, Mo.

The company's new $30 million retail service center will be in the Sikeston Business, Education and Technology Park. Its 115 employees will relocate to the new, 40 percent larger building after it is completed.

Since opening in 1971 on Nash Road as the first distribution center for the member-owned lumber and hardware co-op, the Cape Girardeau facility has expanded several times.

"Quite honestly, we just outgrew the footprint we had. We could no longer expand outward anymore at that facility because we were landlocked," said Randy Rusk, communications director at Do it Best Corp., based in Fort Wayne, Ind. Another motivating factor in the decision to move was repeated flooding that has occurred on Nash Road in recent years.

"There were times, quite often, when we had water right up to the base of our building. That wasn't a responsible thing for us when we've got millions of dollars in inventory in the facility to continue to run that risk," Rusk said.

About three years ago, the company began working with Cape Girardeau officials to search for a new site, but they couldn't find an available site large enough to fit their growing needs, Rusk said.

"We don't have as much competitively priced site-ready industrial property as some other places do," said John Mehner, president and CEO of the Cape Girardeau Area Chamber of Commerce. "We would have liked to have kept them because they are a quality company."

While Do it Best Corp. considered locations in other states, it was important to retain their workforce, Rusk said.

"We couldn't do it in Cape, so we looked for the next closest place that had the amount of land available and a land elevation where we weren't further threatened by floodwaters," he said.

Although the details of a state and local economic development incentive package are still being worked out, Rusk said it will likely involve the enhanced enterprise zone and tax credit programs through the Missouri Department of Economic Development. Sikeston will also phase in real estate property taxes on the 103-acre site.

The Cape Girardeau distribution center, which sits on 35 acres, serves Do it Best Corp. member retailers in 11 states.

The company's Nash Road facility will be a marketable building, Mehner said, adding that the city would work with Do it Best Corp. to help market the building to another business.

mmiller@semissourian.com

388-3646

Pertinent address:

5422 Nash Road, Cape Girardeau, MO

U.S. 61 and Highway ZZ, Sikeston, MO