River Campus starting point for DREAM

~ Revitalization efforts will focus on Broadway and the riverfront.

Broadway, the riverfront and the area immediately surrounding the River Campus will be the focus of development efforts for Cape Girardeau' s DREAM initiative, architects of the proposal said Wednesday.

Cape Girardeau is one of 10 communities statewide that will share $300,000 set aside to pay planners to develop local proposals into working plans, Missouri Department of Economic Development director Greg Steinhoff said. After the plan is approved, state grants, loans and tax credits will be funneled into the communities to realize the plans, he said.

"What has happened in the past is that a city manager or a chamber of commerce will think of one or two things they need to do with a dribbling effect of one thing followed by another," Steinhoff said. "This will be a three-year aggressive plan that will transform downtowns."

The first round of DREAM, or Downtown Revitalization and Economic Assistance for Missouri, program selections were announced Tuesday. Cape Girardeau's proposal was drafted by Tim Arbeiter of the Cape Girardeau Chamber of Commerce and identifies underused properties on Broadway, empty land near the MIssissippi River and the areas along Good Hope and Morgan Oak streets near the River Campus as locations for comprehensive work.

The River Campus, Arbeiter said, "is a huge, foundation block piece. The question is, how do you use that to spur development?"

The River Campus is a $50 million project for Southeast Missouri State University that will house performing arts and other programs. It is located along Morgan Oak Street near the entrance to the old Mississippi River bridge.

There are numerous small business and some vacant properties, as well as housing, in the area just northwest of the campus along Morgan Oak and Good Hope Street.

"We know something is going to happen in the Good Hope area," Arbeiter said. "We want to make sure we get the best residential and commercial growth in those areas."

In the proposal made to the state, Arbeiter wrote that the River Campus has the opportunity to be an arts community with sites for artists' galleries and living quarters and businesses to support the community.

The land along the riverfront, Arbeiter wrote, could be a location for large-scale developments, "but feasibility and market analysis studies are needed to proceed beyond the brain-storming stage."

The state program, he said, will bring fresh eyes to view the needs and opportunities in each area by hiring professional planners and redevelopment specialists.

"They may think of things we do not see," he said.

All three areas included in the proposal to the state are within the Old Town Cape business district. The Good Hope area, known historically as the Haarig district, should be the highest priority, said Dr. Steven Hoffman, president of the board of Old Town Cape.

"The new development that is going on right now is causing changes on the ground to occur whether we do anything or not," Hoffman said.

By bringing together landowners, city officials, Old Town Cape and other business interests, the development can be guided, he said.

The timeline for the DREAM initiative, Hoffman and Arbeiter said, would be to approve a plan the first year, initiate developments in the second year and have important projects well underway during the third year.

At the River Campus, Hoffman said, "in five to 10 years it is going to look completely different and that is whether we do a plan or not. If we do a plan, we get buy-in, cohesion and it fits well with areas around it."

Support for putting the plans into action will come from the Missouri Development Finance Board and the Missouri Housing Development Commission. Those two agencies are putting up $100,000 each to support the planning process, Steinhoff said, and $100,000 will come from the Department of Economic Development budget.

The DREAM initiative will be used to push the development finance board to focus on the smaller communities of the state, Steinhoff said. Up to 99 percent of the board's activities have involved projects in the state's major urban centers.

"Smaller communities aren't using the finance board as that kind of resource," he said. "We are committing the finance board's attention."

rkeller@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 126