PERRYVILLE SEMINARY PLANS DEVELOPMENT; GOLF COURSES INCLUDED

PERRYVILLE -- A portion of St. Mary's of the Barrens Seminary will be turned into a commercial and residential development that will include two nine-hole golf courses.

On Wednesday, the Vincentian order that owns the 179-year-old seminary and acreage surrounding it unveiled a plan to develop an outlet mall, the golf courses, stores, offices, light manufacturing buildings and subdivisions on the 650 acres that surround the 55-acre seminary campus.

The Vicentians will retain ownership of the land.

The plan is tentative, said the Rev. William Hartenbach, chief administrator of the Midwest Province of the Congregation of the Mission, the formal name of the Vincentians. "What we're trying to do is open the door to what can be done," he said.

Developers, including one discount store, have approached the Vincentians for years with proposals for the land. But the order has had no formal talks with anyone, Hartenbach said.

He said he wanted to make the formal announcement before entertaining any offers. It would probably take several developers to bring the whole plan to fruition.

Hartenbach brought in urban-planning consultants Peckham, Guyton, Albers and Viets of St. Louis to develop the plan a year and a half ago, said Mike Weber, a consultant with the firm. He said the plan was designed to allow one kind of development to take place in one part of the property without inhibiting other kinds of development in other parts.

"We have decided that it is in the best interests of the Vincentian community to co-develop this land and to retain ownership and control," Hartenbach said. "That control will guarantee -- as well as guarantees can work -- that nothing that is offensive or harmful to either the civic community or the Vincentian community will find its way onto that land."

The order has no plans to develop other non-adjacent tracts of land it owns in Perry County, Hartenbach said.

Three members of the order currently farm the least rugged parts of the land. Money from the crop sales goes to support the order, Hartenbach said.

Situated along Interstate 55 on the north side of Route 51, it is near existing commercial developments that include the Best Western Colonial Inn, Union Planters Bank, Wal-Mart, McDowell Ford, Burger King and Taco Bell. Its northern edges touch the Perryville Industrial Park.

Established in 1818 as the first institution of higher learning west of the Mississippi, the campus once housed a seminary that trained priests, including Hartenbach. At one time it included a high school.

The seminary closed 12 years ago.

Now 30 retired priests live there. Catholics go there for retreats. Seminarians from Kenrick Seminary go there for summer seminars. About 10,000 tourists annually visit the Shrine of Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal adjacent to the campus.

Hartenbach said the order wants to use the remaining campus as "a heritage and pilgrimage site." He has appointed a study group to plan the campus' future. It will hold its first meeting in July.

The seminary may be a casualty of the declining numbers of Catholics in the United States who want to become priests. But the Vincentians are growing in Africa.

In the United States "we have a recruiting problem," Hartenbach said. In Africa "we have a screening problem."

Hartenbach said income from developing the Perryville property would, in part, go to support a seminary the order plans to build in Nairobi, Kenya. He said the land that once supported priests here would instead support priests there.

Local officials expressed delight at the seminary's plans. State Sen. Peter Kinder, State Rep. Patrick Naeger and Perryville Mayor Robert Miget were at the news conference to show their support.

Miget said he was pleased that the seminary would keep its campus while developing a prime piece of property situated along two heavily traveled roads.

"They've been here forever," Miget said, "and as a lifelong resident of Perryville I'm confident they will do what's best for the area."

The seminary will need zoning changes to develop most of the property, said James Wibbenmeyer, zoning administrator for Perryville.

Except for a 350-foot-wide strip along St. Joseph Street near Route 51 and another strip of Route 51 south of Edgemont Boulevard, the whole tract is zoned R-1 residential. Except for putting in a subdivision or obtaining a special-use permit for a golf course, the seminary would have to change the zoning to develop the tracts as it plans.