COUNTER OFFER ON TABLE FOR SEMINARY

Serious negotiations over the sale of St. Vincent's Seminary to the Colonial Cape Girardeau Foundation are under way, Realtor Thomas L. Meyer said Wednesday.

Meyer, who is handling the sale for the Provincial Administration of Vincentian Fathers in St. Louis, said the owners rejected the offer the foundation made last week but said "see what you can do."

Wednesday afternoon, a counter offer was submitted to the foundation. David Murphy, executive director of the foundation, said the board of directors has not yet met to discuss the offer.

"We're definitely serious in what we're doing," Meyer said. "We're in the process of trying to arrive at an idea that might be workable."

Said Murphy, "We are pleased that the Vincentians have replied in the positive manner of a counter offer."

Fr. John Gagnepain, who in effect is the CEO for the Vincentian Fathers, said Meyer is in charge of the transaction. "If Mr. Meyer set us up with a recommendation, most likely we followed his recommendation," he said.

If a sale is made, Meyer said, the purchase price "may or may not be released." He declined to comment further on the negotiations, saying he does not want to conduct them in the media.

The 150-year-old seminary at the foot of the Mississippi River Bridge has been for sale for more than four years. The asking price is $1.13 million.

The Colonial Cape Girardeau Foundation wants to turn the seminary into a museum and Civil War interpretive center. On June 15, Murphy announced that the foundation had made its first formal bid on the 27-acre property.

Neither side would divulge the amount of the bid.

Murphy said he announced that an offer had been made because "we thought it was good news...we wanted to share it with everybody else."

Barbara Rust, former president of the foundation and still a board member, said the foundation could not have afforded to make its bid six months ago. .

"Several monies came in that were promised in goodly amounts," she said. "We are in a different position than we were six months ago."

She said donations have come in from all over the U.S. "I was completely surprised by the depths of the emotional interest from former students," she said.

In the past, Rust has contended that only some kind of partnership between the foundation and the city would make the museum and interpretive center economically viable.

"I am more optimistic about the prospect of acquiring funds," she said. "I have been surprised at the clout of some of the (seminary) alumni."

Both Rust and Murphy debunked suggestions that the bid was made with so-called "funny money" funding based on an expectation of future revenue.

"It's not funny money. It's real," Rust said.

A task force appointed by the city has been exploring ways to help the foundation purchase the property, including the acquisition of grants. The possibility that a historic preservation tax could be imposed has been discussed in some quarters.

The task force has prepared a recommendation to be presented to the city council July 7 that seeks the city's assistance in funding a feasibility study of the seminary project.

Meyer confirmed that two gambling companies had made bids on the 27-acre property prior to the riverboat gambling vote earlier this month. The site includes one 4-acre tract with river frontage.

"One of the companies made a proposal with no strings attached and one made a proposal with strings attached," Meyer said.

Both offers were rejected, though the Vincentian Fathers have said they are not opposed to selling the property to gambling interests.

Foundation officials said the timing of the offer and the rejection of riverboat gambling in a vote one week earlier was coincidental.

They said the offer is not an attempt to lock up the property in anticipation of another vote expected to take place in November.

Murphy said one of his concerns has always been that the seminary might be purchased for other than preservation purposes.

"I think it would be a very sad commentary for the city of Cape Girardeau to have a jewel such as the seminary taken from it," Murphy said.

Murphy said the foundation has never entertained the idea of selling or leasing the seminary's river frontage to a gambling boat in the event that riverboat gambling is ever legalized in the city.

"I can't believe anyone would even think that," he said. "It is in no shape, form or fashion in our thoughts."

Asked whether there is any possibility that the foundation might get into the gambling business someday, Murphy said, "I would have to say never."