MID-YEAR CONSTRUCTION TOTALS PROMISING

STEEL WORK GOING UP: Construction is proceeding at the new corporate headquarters of Health Services Corporation of America at 840 S. Mount Auburn Road. Here, a worker can be seen through the steel work that is now going up at the site.

Construction facts for 1992:

Permits have been issued here for 60 homes at a cost of more than $7.2 million. That's an average of more than $120,000 per home.

Permits have been issued for more than $14 million in commercial construction through the first six months of the year.

The commercial total does not include contracts for more than $13 million for the expansion projects at Southeast Missouri Hospital. Permits will be issued for these projects later.

July permits include a $819,000 project for a new Cracker Barrel restaurant, and a $384,500 renovation for Toys R Us, which will move into the old Wal-Mart building on Silver Springs.

The largest permit issued in June was for the $906,000 remodeling project at the Cape Girardeau Municipal Airport terminal.

Permits have been issued for more than $250,000 in remodeling and renovations of West Park Mall stores.

Permits for more than $7 million have been issued for the HSCA complex.

In-ground and above-ground swimming pools, yard decks, patios, garages, home remodeling and additions have become popular this summer.

"We have issued a number of permits for those items during the past couple of months," said a spokesman from the Cape Girardeau building permit office. "And May was a big month for new-home permits."

This year could be a big one for construction in Cape Girardeau. At mid-year, building permits had been issued for construction projects totaling more than $20 million. And that does not include all the permits that will be required for the city's biggest project in years a two-year, $13.3 million expansion project by Southeast Missouri Hospital.

Not counting the hospital project, permits had been issued for $20.2 million worth of construction projects as of June 30. Permits issued the first three weeks of July boost that total to $22.7 million.

Permits for six new homes have been issued this month, accounting for more than $613,000 putting the 1992 total at 60 new homes with a combined value of $7,258,000, or an average of about $120,000 each. May was the biggest month this year for new-home starts, with 17.

No less than 20 permits have been issued for additions and expansions to residences in Cape Girardeau over the past three months, ranging from $1,200 in improvements to an $80,000 expansion. More than a dozen permits have been issued during the same period for garages.

At least eight permits were issued during May, June and July for new swimming pools, most of them in-ground pools. A combined total of more than a dozen deck and/or patio permits were issued during the same period.

Three of the larger commercial project permits issued to date this month were permits for the $819,000 Cracker Barrel restaurant and store; Toys R Us for $384,000 worth of renovations and remodeling in the former Wal-Mart building on South Spring Street; and the $270,000 expansion of the Memorial Park Cemetery Mausoleum by Ford and Sons Funeral Homes and Monument Co.

Another big commercial construction project started within the past month was the $906,000 renovation and remodeling project at the Cape Girardeau Municipal Airport terminal. Work started at the airport building June 22, with a target date of February 1993 set for completion.

Construction started in mid-June at the Memorial Park Cemetery Mausoleum. The project includes expansion of the mausoleum and chapel.

Steel work is going up at the Health Services Corporation of America (HSCA) project. HSCA is building a $7 million-plus complex on a six-acre tract it owns between Doctors' Park and West Park Mall. It will include the firm's national headquarters building.

These projects and others are getting the year off to what could be a record construction year in Cape Girardeau.

Construction this year could top the $25.8 million total here in 1991, building permit officials said. More than two-thirds of the 1991 totals $16.7 million were for commercial buildings and expansions. Permits for 72 new homes were issued last year totaling $8 million.