First construction on River Campus could begin this summer

The basic design is done. The lawsuits are over. Southeast Missouri State University's River Campus arts school will be under construction in Cape Girardeau later this year or next year at the latest, school officials say.

Construction of Terrace Park, an open-roof pavilion and a winding trail through the tree-filled east side of the River Campus overlooking the Mississippi River, could begin this summer, school officials said.

Construction documents should be ready by December 2004 for renovation of the historic building that previously housed Old St. Vincent's Seminary and for construction of new classrooms, a 950-seat performance hall, a 204-seat flexible theater with retractable seating that enables the room to double as a dance studio, a regional history and art museum and a state-affiliated welcome center.

Initial site work on development of the River Campus School of the Visual and Performing Arts will involve the demolition of an old gym, a maintenance shed and a swimming pool on the grounds of a former Catholic seminary.

Major construction on the arts school is expected to start by March 2005, officials said.

Classes on the new campus could begin as early as fall 2006 with the 950-seat performance hall projected to open by January 2007, said Al Stoverink, Southeast's facilities management director.

"We are putting the finishing touches on the design," said Dr. Dennis Holt, vice president of administration and enrollment management.

Jacobs Facilities of St. Louis is handling the architectural and engineering work for the project under a $3.65 million contract . In 2002, the regents signed a $1.33 million contract with BSI Inc. to manage the construction work.

Holt said state and local funding and private donations are in place to pay for the project. Lengthy litigation, which slowed down the project, has been resolved, too.

In December, the Cape Girardeau City Council and local businessman Jim Drury reached a settlement that ended more than five years of lawsuits which had challenged the city's planned use of motel and restaurant tax dollars to help pay for the River Campus.

"The train is out of the station. It's on its way," Holt said.

The Fountain Street extension with its brick-styled paving stones, constructed with the help of a federal grant, already has opened up the west side of the planned campus.

"Just getting everything cleaned up has made a big difference," said Cape Girardeau lawyer Don Dickerson, president of the Board of Regents.

"I honestly think people are starting to get excited about it again," he said.

Counting design, construction and furnishings, the new River Campus could cost an estimated $45 million, said Stoverink.

State and local tax dollars and private donations will pay about $36 million of the cost. The rest is coming from federal grants.

The performance hall will be named for Donald Bedell, a Sikeston businessman who donated over $1 million to the River Campus project in October 2001.

The chapel in the L-shaped seminary building will be renovated for use as a 200-seat recital hall. The historic structure also will include a student art gallery, Holt said.

Cape Girardeau's Convention and Visitors Bureau will be housed in the welcome center.

The new campus will provide classes for music, dance, theater and most of the school's art programs.

The arts school development will have 110,087 net square feet of space, 24,681 square feet less than originally planned. School officials said the space reduction was done to save money.

Southeast's sculpture and ceramics programs will remain on the main campus. Storage for the Southeast Missouri Regional Museum will be kept on the main campus, eliminating the need for construction of basement storage at the River Campus, officials said.

Holt said the university administration has yet to decide what it will do with the academic space that will be available on the main campus once the River Campus opens.

Southeast broke ground on the project on May 27 at the west side of the 16.6-acre tract in the shadow of the new Bill Emerson Memorial Bridge.

The event drew a crowd of about 700 and included an announcement of the donation of more than $1 million by Pepsi bottlers Harry and Rosemary Crisp of Marion, Ill.

School officials say the project will provide hundreds of construction jobs, boost university enrollment by 500 students, generate over $100,000 annually in local retail sales tax revenue, over $300,000 annually in state tax revenue and create more than 100 permanent new jobs in the community.

Said Dickerson, "It is going to be a beehive of activity."

mbliss@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 123