Developer seeks to replace mobile-home park with 'workforce' apartments

The owner of the longtime Star Vue Mobile Home Park wants to turn the 5-acre site along North Kingshighway in Cape Girardeau into a 40-unit apartment complex.

The project would provide “workforce housing” that would be financed with state tax credits and offer “affordable rental rates to people who work in the area and want to live in the community where they work,” according to property owner Brad Schlosser of Benton, Missouri.

In paperwork submitted to the city, Schlosser proposed the construction of 28 two-bedroom units and 12 three-bedroom units.

An artist’s rendering provided to city staff lists the development as “Starview Apartments.”

The site at 1927 N. Kingshighway has served as a mobile-home park for more than 40 years, a search by the Southeast Missourian of local telephone directories shows.

About 60 mobile homes were in the park in 2015, according to the Cape Girardeau County Assessor’s Office.

Renters recently were notified they will have to move out, said local attorney Trae Bertrand, who is representing the owner.

“Depending on their location in the Mobile Home Park, some of the tenants received letters their lease will not be renewed, and some of the tenants are being bought out of their current lease agreements,” Bertrand wrote in an email to the Southeast Missourian.

Elderly renter Edna Anderson said, “A lot of people have just moved.”

She said many of the trailers are empty.

Anderson said her lease is not up for another three months. She said she plans to move into an apartment in Gordonville.

But she welcomes the proposed redevelopment of the Star Vue site.

“I think it will be a big improvement in Cape,” she said.

In a July 10 letter to city officials, Schlosser said “this is not low-income housing. There is no rental assistance tied to these apartments.”

Schlosser said the development would be financed by private equity provided by investors “who have need of the tax credits.”

Workforce housing typically caters to young adults with no or few children, he wrote.

Such apartment communities have a full-time manager and a maintenance person, he said.

Under the tax-credit program administered by the Missouri Housing Development Commission, a single person can rent a two-bedroom unit, Schlosser said.

“Many of our tenants will be single persons. More than a few will be seniors,” he wrote.

According to Schlosser, this would be the first phase of a planned multistate development “to eliminate a real blight and maybe the only remaining blight in this area of Cape.”

He said “removal of this blight will add to the potential growth of this important corridor.”

Schlosser is seeking rezoning of the site, a first step in the redevelopment effort.

The site is zoned for mobile homes. Schlosser has asked the city to rezone it to R-4, which allows for high-density, residential housing.

Alex McElroy, development services director for the city, said the proposed project fits with the city’s future-land-use map of that area.

The city’s planning and zoning commission is scheduled to hold a public hearing Wednesday on the rezoning request. City staff have recommended approval of the request,

mbliss@semissourian.com

(573) 388-3641

Pertinent address:

1927 N. Kingshighway, Cape Girardeau, Mo.