Opportunities overflowing

A musical discovery from a Cape Girardeau seminary's past is becoming part of its performing arts future this week.

As dignitaries from around the state gather at a groundbreaking for Southeast Missouri State University's River Campus arts school on Tuesday, they'll get copies of "College Home," the alma mater of St. Vincent's Seminary. The song apparently dates back to the late 1800s but was always sung a cappella, local musician Jerry Ford said. There were no sheets of music.

But Ford, who is a member of the River Campus Board of Managers, and musician John Quinn have written down the music and arranged it with a piano score. The words and music will be passed out on the back of programs given at the groundbreaking.

And as one musical era is remembered, a new one for the area will begin.

The once secluded school for would-be Catholic priests will be transformed into a vibrant River Campus arts school within the next three years, offering everything from concerts to theatrical productions and art exhibits, and serve as a new gateway to Cape Girardeau from its tree-filled site adjacent to a new Mississippi River bridge, project supporters say.

"This is going to be the greatest development we have ever had in the city of Cape Girardeau," said Don Dickerson, president of the Southeast Missouri State University Board of Regents and one of the prime movers behind the university-led project. "It will help put the city on the map."

The tree-filled site is adjacent to a new Mississippi River bridge that's scheduled for completion in November. The site was home to St. Vincent's Seminary before it closed in 1979. The university acquired the property in 1998.

Paying back

City and university officials believe the River Campus will pay economic dividends for the community. "I think it will mean a lot of money for Cape Girardeau through the tourism it will bring for this city," Dickerson said.

The River Campus also should boost student enrollment, fueling even more sales tax revenue for the city, he said.

Students, he said, would be drawn to the campus for its academic programs in art, music, theater and dance.

Plays, concerts, dance performances and art exhibits will draw audiences. An art and regional history museum, a state-affiliated welcome center and a new park will draw visitors, Dickerson said.

City and university officials are elated about moving ahead with a project that has faced legal hurdles and sparked some public criticism over whether the city should help fund the project.

The River Campus project involves state, city and federal funding, as well as private donations raised by the Southeast Missouri University Foundation.

Over $6 million in private funding already has been secured toward the school's goal of raising just over $10 million, university officials said. The state has committed nearly $17 million to the project. The city has committed $8.9 million to the project.

In addition, the university has obtained over $7 million in federal funding, covering everything from planning work for the museum to construction money for storm drainage improvements, street construction and even a new park. The federal dollars aren't included in the $36 million price tag.

The new park, whose main feature is a champion beech tree on the grounds, and a new portion of Fountain Street are scheduled for construction this year. Both the $325,000 park project and the more than $1 million Fountain Street project, which includes storm drainage improvements, will be funded largely with federal grant money. City funds also are involved in the street project and the university is kicking in money for the park project.

Terrace Park will include a pavilion with an open roof and a winding trail through the tree-filled east side of the River Campus. The trail will take visitors around the beech tree and provide them with a clear view of the Mississippi River and the new river bridge.

Building up

Construction work on the campus' facilities will blend old and new. Major renovations are planned for the existing L-shaped, four-story brick seminary whose oldest section dates back to 1843 as well as new construction. They include tuckpointing of the bricks and replacing the roof.

The seminary building will be converted into space for faculty offices, classrooms, music practice rooms and computer labs. The former seminary chapel will be turned into choir rehearsal space.

A grotto, constructed between 1953 and 1956, at St. Vincent's Seminary will be relocated to Notre Dame Regional High School. Volunteers with the Catholic school are expected to help dismantle and rebuild the grotto this summer.

Renovation work on the seminary building and demolition of the gymnasium and several outbuildings could begin this fall or next spring, school officials said.

New construction will include an 800- to 1,000-seat, 32,000-square-foot performance hall, a 20,000-square-foot museum of art and regional history, a state-affiliated welcome center and office space for the Cape Girardeau Convention and Visitors Bureau. Also in the plans are a recital hall, a small theater with flexible seating and art and dance studios.

Work on the new structure is expected to start by September 2004 with the entire project completed by summer 2006, university officials say.

The new construction -- over 118,000 square feet -- will be south and west of the existing seminary building, much of it only two stories tall. The sloping ground allows for multiple levels of new construction without blocking the view of the seminary building, university officials said.

There will be a courtyard between the historic structure and the new building. Pedestrian walkways on several levels will connect the seminary building with the new structure, said Al Stoverink, Southeast's facilities management director.

The museum, welcome center, CVB offices, the performance spaces and the academic area of the new building would be linked by a central lobby.

The old and new buildings combined will provide over 161,000 square feet of space on five levels, he said.

A new portion of Fountain Street on the west side of the property will serve as the first Cape Girardeau exit off the new Bill Emerson Memorial Bridge and provide the front door to the River Campus, officials said.

The existing Morgan Oak entrance to the 16-acre site overlooking the Mississippi River will be turned into a secondary entrance.

Fountain's new flow

Fountain Street won't be just another street. It will have two 24-foot wide lanes -- room enough for on-street parking on both sides as is currently planned or four lanes of traffic if needed in the future, Stoverink said. It will run from the new Highway 74 bridge route north to Morgan Oak.

The city ultimately plans to extend the street to William Street.

Fountain Street bordering the River Campus will be a divided street with a landscaped median and decorative street lights. The driving surface will be of precast concrete in a terra cotta color that will give drivers the appearance of driving on a brick street, Stoverink said.

School officials said the River Campus will become a downtown landmark.

City officials agree.

Mayor Jay Knudtson expects the River Campus -- coupled with the new bridge nearing completion, renovation of the Marquette Hotel into a state office building, and a new federal courthouse that will be built a few blocks away -- will boost redevelopment efforts throughout the downtown area.

Knudtson said storm drainage and sewer improvements, prompted by the River Campus development, will help the whole downtown.

"We have been talking about improving our downtown area. But until we had these anchor projects to feast off of, it was a difficult thing," he said.

Development of the River Campus will spark private redevelopment efforts all along Morgan Oak Street and the surrounding area, Knudtson predicted.

Main Street businessman Chuck McGinty, who operates a jewelry store a few blocks from the River Campus, said the project will dress up the whole area.

"It can only help class up the entrance to Cape Girardeau from the eastern side," he said. "It makes me want to go to school again."

The River Campus will provide the setting for the first new welcome center in Missouri in decades as well as an eye-opening location for the city's Convention and Visitors Bureau, he said.

School officials hope to secure $1 million in federal money through the Missouri Department of Transportation to construct the visitors center.

Cape Girardeau businessman Jim Drury has filed three lawsuits to block the city's use of motel and restaurant tax money to pay the city's $8.9 million share of the project. His third lawsuit is still pending in Cape Girardeau County Circuit Court.

But that hasn't stopped the university and the city from moving ahead with the project.

"I think 25 years from now when we look back, people will say, 'Why was anybody ever against it?" Dickerson said.

mbliss@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 123