Hospitals not necessarily hot properties for development

Cape Girardeau's two hospitals lie in contrasting settings.

Much of the land around Southeast Missouri Hospital is residential property, quiet, well-kept neighborhoods of single-family homes.

Saint Francis Medical Center, meanwhile, sits adjacent to a sizable commercial strip on the south and abuts open land on the west.

But Saint Francis didn't necessarily draw in those retailers, nor did Southeast attract those houses. The kind of development that is most likely to occur near a hospital, area real estate professionals said, is to house offices and ancilliary service facilities.

The James and Wanda Drury Trust owns 10 acres off Mount Auburn Road near Saint Francis. There's no hurry to develop that land, according to Bob Hahn, vice president of development for Mid-America Hotels and spokesman for the trust. James and Wanda Drury, he said, are part of Mid- America Hotels

Hahn said those who own interest in the property have talked about its possible future use, but for the present have no plans for it.

Landmark Hospital, a 30-bed long-term acute care facility, is nearby, as is a new surgical center.

"It's pretty logical it would possibly be attractive for some kind of health care facility," Hahn said. "At this point we have made no push in any direction on that."

Physicians' offices or other professional buildings in keeping with the surrounding businesses -- which include a chiropractor's office, the American Red Cross and a bank or two in addition to Landmark and Saint Francis hospitals and the surgical center, would be the most likely use, Hahn said.

"We are not limited to medical," he said, but stopped short of saying the trust would consider a fast food business or a convenience store. "I can't get more specific, but we would consider an office complex which would include professional, medical or another support type facility."

There apparently is no tradition of any particular kind of business that prefers to locate near a hospital, other than physicians' offices. Lorimont's Tom Kelsey said it's been at least a year since he leased a medical supply business near a hospital.

However, with both Southeast and Saint Francis having built new office complexes, some ancillary businesses -- such as hospital pharmacies -- have opened in those complexes.

Commercial pharmacies, such as Walgreen's, don't particularly want to be located near a medical facility.

"That has not been a huge criteria," Kelsey said. "They want a high-traffic location."