New district naming aims to sell Cape's downtown

Organizers of Old Town Cape, a 3-year-old group organized to revitalize the downtown area, say creating new and better defined districts will help attract new businesses as well as offer a new promotional tool for businesses that are already there.

"The question kept coming up: 'What are the real boundaries?'" said Skip Smallwood, co-chairman of the group's economic development committee. "So we went in and defined them."

Smallwood said that defining the districts is the first step toward recruiting new businesses. Old Town Cape also is intended to be an economic development organization, he said.

What was originally three districts has now become six -- the existing Broadway, Riverfront and Haarig districts and the new Midtown, Old West End and Upper Broadway districts.

Old Town Cape executive director Catherine Dunlap said more districts were needed to adequately define the diverse neighborhoods within Old Town Cape's 130-block area.

She and Smallwood provided a map and described the districts characteristics as follows:

The Riverfront District, the area along Main and Spanish streets that consist of retail businesses, restaurants and nightclubs.

The Broadway District, the area that runs from along the mid-section of Broadway from Lorimier to Pacific and south to Themis. It is made up of buildings like the Marquette Hotel, the H&H office building, the KFVS building and other office and commercial space.

The Haarig District is an older district in Cape Girardeau and includes sections of Good Hope and Morgan Oak. It consists largely of construction businesses, such as Meyer Supply, Southeast Builders and Anchor Construction.

The Upper Broadway District is made up of the area around Southeast Missouri State University and runs along the western side of Broadway from Pacific to West End Boulevard. Its businesses primarily cater to university students, with several tattoo parlors, pizza restaurants and Houck Stadium.

The Midtown District, which is sandwiched by the Broadway and Haarig districts, and has businesses like Spectrum Fitness, Peddler's Corner, Heartland Insurance as well as city hall.

The Old West End District is largely residential, with a wide variety of architecture styles and a few businesses that are there to serve the neighborhoods.

Dunlap said classifying the districts like this will help Old Town Cape to show interested new businesses what sort of businesses will surround them.

"The Old Town Cape area is huge," she said. "It's not the same from one end to the other. Each of these districts have their own characteristics. We always knew that Old Town Cape was unique, but this will help us fine-tune that."

Dunlap said it will also help existing owners promote their businesses.

Businesses in the districts had differing views on how effective the plan will be.

Dennis Meyer, owner of Meyer Supply, said he liked the idea.

"I think by clearly defining each district, it will help the public over time identify certain areas," he said. "Especially new people coming in. If they know I'm in the Haarig District, they can find me easier."

But Ted Coalter, who owns Heartland Insurance, said he wasn't sure being in a new district would help his business. Coalter's business is in the new Midtown District.

"I don't see how there's going to be any difference," he said. "I'm in an area that people are just driving through to get to another part of town. Unless someone can explain to me how it will make a difference, I honestly don't see how it can."

Smallwood said the next step for the group is to develop demographics from census data so prospective new businesses will know their potential customer base. Plans also exist to inventory available land and buildings that could be used for new business ventures.

"It's niche marketing," Smallwood said. "A new business wants to know what it's getting into."

smoyers@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 137