DOWNTOWN GROUPS BACK BOYD PROPOSAL

Four downtown business groups Tuesday endorsed the Boyd Group's proposal for a riverboat casino in Cape Girardeau over a competing proposal a Boyd official said isn't feasible.

"I don't see how they can build it for 58 million bucks," Robert Boughner said of Lady Luck Cape Girardeau's riverfront casino and resort proposal. "I don't think it could be done for that.

"Lady Luck is a fine company, but I feel they've been ill-advised by people in their employment. That's my position, and that's our company's position."

Boughner is the chief operating officer for the Boyd Group.

His remarks Tuesday were directed at Lady Luck's proposed 100-acre development, unveiled last week, that calls for a riverboat casino, a 200-room hotel, nine-hole Par 3 golf course, a miniature golf course, batting cages, a living history museum in the former St. Vincent Seminary, a 120-slip marina and an open-air, downtown multipurpose market and festival site.

Lady Luck's development site would run from the Mississippi River bridge to Locust Street. The project was developed by Booker and Associates, a St. Louis architectural firm, and Thalden Corp., a St. Louis developer.

The $51 million Boyd Group complex -- which includes a riverboat casino, multilevel parking garage, restaurant, and offices and shops in the renovated Buckner-Ragsdale building -- would be built at the foot of Broadway.

That location earned the Boyd Group's proposal the endorsements of the Downtown Merchant's Association, the Cape Girardeau Redevelopment Corp., the Main Street Levee and Improvement District, and the Downtown Special Business District Advisory Commission.

Joe Low, president of the Downtown Merchants Association, urged the Cape Girardeau City Council to select the Boyd proposal because it would increase "foot traffic" downtown, tax dollars for the Downtown Redevelopment Corp., and would provide "tens of millions in investment dollars... within the business district."

Low contended that the Lady Luck proposal, south of the downtown business district, would divert tourists from downtown shops.

"It would be like cutting off a faucet," he said. "The I-55 south exit will be the entrance and exit to our city. Visitors will never see the heart of Cape Girardeau."

Kent Zickfield of the Downtown Special Business District Advisory Board said only the Boyd Group proposal would increase tax revenues for the special business district.

"The total estimated additional assessed valuation would be $8,448,000, with an estimated additional annual tax revenue of $67,000-plus," Zickfield said. "That's an increase over current property tax revenues of 540 percent."

David B. Knight, secretary of the Main Street Levee and Improvement District, and Charles Hutson of the Cape Girardeau Redevelopment Corp. also cited the increased tax revenue to the levee district from the Boyd proposal.

They joined about 200 other downtown supporters of the Boyd Group gathered Tuesday at Port Cape restaurant for the announcement of the endorsements.

The Boyd Group was represented by Boughner, Maunty Collins and Dan Davis, a Boyd consultant with Southern Research Group.

Boughner pitched the Boyd Group as a reputable gaming company that would be a longtime "corporate citizen" in Cape Girardeau.

He said he doubted Cape Girardeau's gaming market supports Lady Luck's proposal.

"Our analysis of the Cape showed other and higher uses for the seminary property other than a commercial establishment," he said. "The hotel occupancy in Cape is not 100 percent, and we didn't think the market supported another hotel.

"We don't want to compete with established businesses," Boughner said. "We're willing to expand our complex in the future if the market indicates it's needed."