GROUNDBREAKING SET MONDAY FOR INDUSTRIAL `SPEC' BUILDING

All plans are on go for the Cape Girardeau Area Industrial Recruitment Association's new speculative shell building.

A groundbreaking ceremony will be held at the building site in the Nash Road Industrial Park at 1 p.m. Monday for the new structure.

The Cape Girardeau Area Industrial Recruitment Association is working with a number of area groups to build a "spec" building on West Nash Road near the General Sign Co., which was originally a spec building.

Current plans call for a 200-by-300-foot, 60,000-square-foot speculative building on an 8-acre tract.

A spec building is an asset to business recruiting efforts, said Mitch Robinson, the association's executive director.

"Numbers we get from the state show that 70 to 80 percent of companies look to locate into a spec building," Robinson said, adding that a speculative building can be an asset in attracting new industrial prospects.

Groups working with the recruitment association include Union Electric, the Greater Cape Girardeau Development Corp., the Industrial Development Authority of Cape Girardeau County and a number of banks -- Boatmen's, Capital, Commerce, First National and Mercantile.

"It has taken us about a year to put this package together," said Robinson. "We have a great partnership with the organizations that are working with us, and the banks have put together a good finance package."

Penzel Construction Co. is contractor for the building, which is expected to be ready in about six months.

The spec building is the first in Nash Road Industrial Park since 1987, when a 60,000-square-foot building was constructed on West Nash Road. That one didn't last long. It was leased to General Sign the same year.