GROUP HOPES TO MAKE NEW SEMINARY OFFER

The Colonial Cape Girardeau Foundation hopes within the next few weeks to make another offer on the purchase of the St. Vincent's Seminary property.

David Murphy, executive director of the foundation, said: "We are going forward. We have not lost our vision in what our goal is and have never taken our eyes off that 151-year-old building. It's a must.

"We've got to get that place because so many things have been lost to our memory. I would hate to think we had this opportunity to save this place and didn't do it. That's why we're still going through with this."

Realtor Thomas L. Meyer said Tuesday, "We are currently in negotiations."

Meyer said the Colonial Cape Girardeau Foundation is involved in the negotiations but it is not alone. "We have others," he said. "There have been ongoing negotiations with several organizations."

Meyer said: "We are still trying to negotiate a settlement with the highway department. We are preparing to get ready for litigation with the highway department."

Some of the seminary land will be taken by the Missouri Highway and Transportation Department for a new Mississippi River bridge and highway.

Meyer is handling the sale for the Provincial Administration of Vincentian Fathers in St. Louis, owners of the property.

The seminary property was included in a proposal by gambling company Lady Luck. "Naturally, they didn't buy," Meyer said.

Colonial Cape Girardeau Foundation wants to turn the seminary into a museum and Civil War interpretive center. In June 1993, the foundation made its first formal bid on the 27-acre property.

Murphy said, "We're in the process right now of putting together another offer."

In February Boyd Gaming Co. pledged $500,000 to the foundation to support its efforts at the seminary. Murphy said that money can be placed toward the purchase price.

The seminary at the foot of the Mississippi River bridge has been for sale for more than five years. The asking price has been $1.13 million.

The attention on the site generated by interest from gambling companies did not change the foundation's position, Murphy said.

"Our focus has never changed from day one," Murphy said. "We're pressing forward and going toward the preservation of St. Vincent college."

"What we want to do with St. Vincent's is something for the community, for our regional community," Murphy said. "It will be of great benefit to all the people in the area for us to be able to acquire it, preserve it."

He said he believes developing the museum and interpretive center would help spur tourism and economic growth.

"The people of the community, I believe, have been very supportive in terms of what we're doing," he said.