Meet Anna Kangas, Cape's point person on City Hall project

Anna Kangas, the City of Cape Girardeau’s project manager for the $12 million new City Hall project overlooking the Mississippi River, calls her work “very satisfying.”

Kangas, a 2003 Jackson High School graduate, is experienced in this role, previously having been the city’s point person on the $11 million Cape Girardeau Police Headquarters at 2530 Maria Louise Lane near Arena Park and the $3.47 million Fire Station No. 4 on Lexington Avenue in the city’s northwest quadrant.

She also oversaw smaller renovation work at Fire Station No. 1 on South Sprigg Street and Fire Station No. 2 on South Mount Auburn Road.

Kangas, a licensed architect since November 2011, clearly likes working in the public sector.

“Every day is different for me,” said Kangas, 35.

“I really like the construction side of it, being able to help take a project from plans on paper to becoming 3D — something you walk through, live in and work in,” she added.

Kangas is quick to note Penzel Construction is the design-build general contractor for the City Hall project in partnership with architecture firm TreanorHL.

“As project manager, I’m the liaison between city staff and the design-build team,” Kangas said, noting part of her role is keeping tabs on cost implications as the job moves forward.

Kangas did her undergraduate work at Drury University in Springfield, Missouri, then stayed in that city after her 2008 graduation working in a small architecture office.

While in southwest Missouri, she realized how much she missed home.

“I realized I wanted to come back,” Kangas said, making mention of the family farm between Whitewater and Gordonville.

She gives credit where it is due for finding a position in Cape Girardeau city government.

“My mom knew I wanted to come home (from Springfield) and told me the City of Cape needed someone with an architecture degree,” Kangas said.

Starting with the city as a commercial plan reviewer in 2011, Kangas assumed the role of building and code enforcement manager in 2015.

Kangas also holds a master of public administration degree from Southeast Missouri State University and left Cape Girardeau for awhile for an opportunity in Colorado in early 2019.

She moved back within 14 months.

“Cape Girardeau just calls to me, I think,” Kangas said.

Kangas’ March 2020 return to Southeast Missouri came just as COVID-19 hit.

“I was in the office for a total of two days,” she said, “and then I worked essentially from home for the next three months.”

“(Kangas) is a perfect fit for us,” said Cape Girardeau Mayor Bob Fox, adding Kangas has also assumed a job, on an interim basis, she formerly held — as Building and Code Enforcement manager.

She also holds the position of “transformation manager,” which Fox said is a title that suits her work with the city well.

“Anna is innovative, researching how other cities do things, and she’s done a terrific job in particular centralizing our licensing,” added Fox, mayor since 2018.

“(Kangas) has been spearheading a business-friendly effort to make getting licenses much more efficient,” he said.

Kangas is working to put licensing online, she said, and those with a desire to do business with the city now have a one-stop shop: the city’s development services office.

“It’s become almost a concierge service now,” Fox said, adding Kangas has been at the center of the change.

The new City Hall project, slated for move-in by the fall of 2021, will make over the 165-year-old former Common Pleas Courthouse and adjacent Annex, a former Carnegie Library, and will construct a connecting addition between the two, including a parking garage at 44 N. Lorimier St.

The current City Hall, at 401 Independence St., will not be retained, said Fox, who added the city is examining options for selling the property.