DOWNTOWN LIVING STAGES A COMEBACK IN LOFT DWELLINGS

Karen Beckman, new center manager at West Park Mall, missed the beautiful vistas of her Wisconsin home when she moved to Cape Girardeau.

She looked for Cape Girardeau's best view and found one of the Mississippi River out a downtown apartment window. Beckman moved in.

Beckman is among a growing number of people choosing downtown living in Cape Girardeau. It is really an old practice made new again. At the turn of the century, many people lived over businesses in downtown areas.

Today, renovators are investing money in second-story space for modern apartments. Most have rustic touches, like original hardwood floors, and many have views of the river.

"I don't know how long I will be in an apartment," Beckman said. "But I wanted at least to see the outside." She has an unobstructed view of the Mississippi.

Her apartment is one of eight loft-style apartments recently completed over OFMCO on Main Street, in the former Montgomery Ward building.

Apartments, most on the high-end of the rental scale, are opening throughout downtown.

"They did a wonderful job refinishing and renovating the building," Beckman said.

She loves downtown living. Each morning she jogs, and she often stops up the block for a fresh muffin.

"The downtown is charming," Beckman said. "It's a very unthreatening locale."

Beckman hopes to adjust to the sound of passing trains in the night, the only disruption she said.

When Jayne and Loyd Ervin decided five years ago to make their home above their downtown business, it was purely for practical reasons. They would be close to work, and their teenage children would be close at hand.

"We owned this building and thought it was just smarter for us overall to put our home above one of our businesses," Jayne Ervin said.

The practical arrangement has worked well for the family, owners of Ervin's Metalsmiths and Jayson Jewelers, 115 Themis.

"There have been big advantages," Ervin said. "We're extremely close to work, we don't have the hassle of traffic, and our children are right here."

When the Ervins moved downtown, they were among the few. But they see the numbers growing.

"I find the generation today likes old things and the quaintness of downtown over an impersonal subdivision or apartment," she said. "I think it's a homier, warmer area."

The one disadvantage is that they don't have a yard. But with their hectic schedule, no yard work can be a plus.

For college student Brian Regenhardt, an apartment over Step by Step Shoe Store on Main Street puts him close to Cape Girardeau's night life.

"It's a different area of town," Regenhardt said. "It's much different than rental areas over by Arena Park."

Restaurants and night life are literally outside his door.

"Basically, for Cape, all the night life is downtown," he said.

Regenhardt has been a downtown dweller for about a year, and he has watched the neighborhood develop.

"It's amazing. A lot of money is going into apartments down here," he said. "It's kind of a trend."