Ray's Banquet Center to be demolished in July

For Sikeston, Missouri, residents Rachel Trankler and Aaron Harland, their June 1 wedding reception at Ray’s Plaza Banquet Center in Cape Girardeau will be a celebration of their marriage earlier that day.

It will also mark the final event at the banquet facility.

Trankler, who is expecting between 250 and 300 guests at her wedding reception, said she and Harland selected their wedding date many months ago and the fact their reception would be the last event at the banquet center will add an extra “footnote” to their wedding memories.

“I found out about it from my wedding coordinator that Ray’s was closing after our reception,” she said. “I had no idea that was going to happen so I was definitely surprised.”

The banquet facility, which opened about 10 years ago at 3257 William St. in a building that once also housed indoor tennis courts and a fitness club, will close after its lease expires next month. The building’s owner, Midamerica Hotels Corp., plans to demolish it later this summer, according to Diane Drury, Midamerica Hotels’ vice president of real estate.

“We plan to do the demolition sometime in July,” she said.

According to Drury, the facility was built in the mid-1970s, “but its time has come. It’s getting older and costing more to maintain.”

Drury said removal of the building will improve access to the Hampton Inn, Cracker Barrel, Texas Roadhouse and other businesses in the vicinity.

“We will also have some land parcels available for future development,” she said.

Once known as the Holiday Racquet Club, the building had six racquetball courts and two tennis courts as well as Universal Physique Fitness Center. Saint Francis Medical Center purchased Universal Physique in the 1990s and eventually moved the fitness operation to the Medical Center campus where it is now known as Fitness Plus. Midamerica Hotels currently uses the old tennis court area to store furniture, fixtures and equipment for its hotel and Burger King properties.

Ray’s Plaza Banquet Center was originally operated by Ray Ressel who also owned Ray’s of Kelso. It has been run in recent years by Ressel’s son and stepsons, James Ressel, Greg Rich and Jason Rich.

”We’ve hosted everything from anniversaries, wedding receptions, birthdays, business dinners, awards luncheons, expos, high school proms, sorority formals and several events for the hospitals over the years,” said Greg Rich, who said he and his brothers have known for years Midamerica Hotels would eventually end the banquet center’s lease and tear down the structure.

“Midamerica has been great to work with over the years,” he said. “It’s been a great partnership, but we knew from the time even when Ray started the banquet center that this day would come.”

All of the banquet center’s fixtures and equipment will be sold the weekend after the Trankler-Harland wedding.

“Anything and everything will be up for sale,” Greg Rich said, including dishes, glassware, silverware, ovens, serving equipment, tables, chairs and even salt and pepper shakers. A list of sale items can be found on the banquet center’s Facebook page.

Greg Rich said the banquet and catering operation will not reopen elsewhere.

“We’re already selling our kitchen equipment, and besides, its hard to find another facility,” he said. “There aren’t many places that size that we could move to.”

jwolz@semissourian.com

(573) 388-3630