MILLER SAYS CITY OUT OF PROJECT

Foreclosure on St. Vincent's Seminary will sever the city of Cape Girardeau's ties to the property and to Colonial Cape Girardeau Foundation.

Thanks to a short-term loan from the Vincentian Fathers of St. Louis, who owned the seminary, the foundation took the title to the property in April 1995. But plans to pay off the title didn't materialize. After extending the payoff date too many times, the Vincentians decided to foreclose on the property. Proceedings began Monday.

The Rev. Bill Hartenbach, provincial for the Vincentians, said there wasn't a particular event that forced his group to take action.

"There was an agreement, and the agreement wasn't kept," he said. "That's the bottom line."

The city had worked with Colonial Cape Girardeau Foundation to pay off the land purchase. In February, officials applied for a $440,000 state transportation grant to buy the seminary, justifying the application because the property sits next to new Highway 74 and a planned Mississippi River bridge.

Highway commissioners never saw the request, which didn't get first-round approval from an appointed committee.

Another plan was to use a $150,000 payment to the city from Boyd Gaming Corp. to buy part of the property. The land would have been used for a park while the foundation used the buildings for tours, meetings and social events.

Now that the entire property is going back to the Vincentians, the city isn't interested, City Manager Michael Miller said.

"The foundation was talking about a very good use for a very large building," he said. "We wouldn't want a park tied into a building that could be used for anything. Our interest has waned."

Al Lowes, attorney for the Vincentians, said the foreclosure proceedings may be stopped at any time. The foundation must present the $600,000-plus interest and the cost of insuring the building, something the Vincentians were forced to do.

If the foreclosure proceeds, the Vincentians need only publish notice in the local newspaper, Lowes said. No action is taken through the court system.

"Maybe those people will come to their senses and get us out of their hair," he said. "The Catholic Church cannot give away its property or it can't perform its normal functions, which are spreading the gospel and taking care of its other churches."

Despite real estate agent Thomas Meyer's insistence that there are no other buyers interested, Lowes said there are. He wouldn't reveal any names.

Hartenbach, the provincial, said he didn't know if there were any other buyers.

Members of Colonial Cape Girardeau Foundation aren't giving up, said Mary Robertson, the group's president. She would like to sit down with the Vincentians or their representatives and work out an agreement.

The foundation had eight cosigners on a $525,000 bank loan and hoped the Vincentians would take the lower amount. They rejected the offer. Now Robertson would like two more cosigners to come forward so the bank comfortably could loan the full $600,000.

Foundation members will meet July 9 to plan their course of action.