FOUNDATION PLACES NEW CONTRACT OFFER TO PURCHASE ST. VINCENT COLLEGE

The Colonial Cape Girardeau Foundation has made another contract offer for St. Vincent College, the historic seminary that overlooks the Mississippi River south of downtown.

Foundation Executive Director David Murphy declined to release details of the offer to the Vincentians, other than to say the dollar amount is greater, the cost of asbestos abatement has been subtracted and that "the tenor of the contract" has changed.

The Colonial Cape Girardeau Foundation has in its plans for St. Vincent College a national historic museum, a Civil War interpretive center and a cultural center for performing and visual arts.

Foundation Board President Becky Richey said that the 30-day contract, tendered to the Vincentian's realtor Thursday, is the group's final attempt to start direct negotiations to buy the 150-year-old landmark.

"We have made attempts to meet directly with the Provincial of the Congregation of the Mission (Vincentians,) in the past, with no results," said Richey. "It is our greatest hope that with this latest effort on our behalf that we can now all come to the table."

Richey said the hope of the foundation is that the Provincial, his realtor and foundation representatives can "negotiate a contract that all parties can live with."

The Foundation's Task Force, as appointed by the Cape Girardeau City Council, has thus far assisted the organization in having environmental testing done on the buildings by a nationally and internationally recognized firm, Larron Laboratory Consulting Services; and has helped with the costs of an architectural survey of the historic site by J. Stuart Todd Architects, a Dallas, Texas based firm, who has done considerable work in Missouri, especially in Cape Girardeau.