SEMINARY PROJECTS SUPPORTERS SEEKING SOURCE FOR FUNDING

Representatives of the Colonial Cape Girardeau Foundation, which is seeking to purchase St. Vincent's Seminary and turn it into a museum and Civil War interpretive center, say few people oppose the project.

But how funding the ambitious proposal remains the group's biggest obstacle.

Barbara Rust, president of the foundation, said Sunday that supporters of the project now are researching various funding methods.

"We have no opposition to this project, from the city council or anybody else," Rust said. "The only questions are the funding.

"Right now, we've got some feelers out with various groups and we're trying to come up with a way to fund buying that property."

An architectural firm hired by the foundation has said the finished development including museums, Civil War re-enactment area and replica gunboat, Ulysses S. Grant presidential library, excursion train, restored log cabin and working trolley car could cost more than $11 million.

But Rust said the group now is solely concerned with the 150-year-old property's initial purchase price. Thomas L. Meyer, the realtor for the 27-acre site, said last week the asking price is slightly more than $1.1 million.

"We're concentrating on the property," Rust said. "All the other development would have to come later. We're concerned right now about phase one."

Earlier this month, the Cape Girardeau City Council voted to study spending excess tourism funds on the proposal after David Murphy, the foundation's executive director, asked the council for $223,000 in tourism funds for "seed money" to go toward the purchase of the property.

The council also is studying using the tourism funds to build a sports complex.

Murphy reported at the meeting that the asking price had dropped to $600,000, but retracted the statement Sunday.

"That's basically what we offered them," he said. "But we haven't had any agreement with the seller on a price yet."

Murphy also said the focus of the foundation now is to purchase the St. Vincent's tract, situated along the Mississippi River just south of the existing bridge.

"We've been to Washington, (D.C.) and Jefferson City," he said. "Folks in Washington say `buy it and come back and talk to us.' That's really what we expected to hear, but we wanted to open those doors.

"The key now is to purchase the property," Murphy added. "To have that property in hand is paramount."

He said state officials with the Division of Tourism and the state treasurer's office also were interested in the project and indicated low-interest loans are available for such proposals.

Also, the group launched a direct-mail campaign in Cape Girardeau County to seek contributions and pledges from people interested in the project.

"To date, we're well over $35,000 on our way to $50,000, which is virtually unheard of with a direct mail fund piece," Murphy said. "I feel there's a great deal of interest for this."

Rust and Murphy both said that, regardless of how the city decides to spend excess city tourism funds, additional, alternative funding will have to be found to fully develop the St. Vincent's project.

The tourism fund is financed by a quarter-cent hotel and restaurant sales tax.

"As far as hotel/motel tax is concerned, our only reason for asking for that is that it was there," said Rust. "Now it's possible there are other methods of funding. We're trying to come up with some solutions for funding.

"I don't want us to take on something for the city that will totally be a drain 10 years from now," she added. "What we're doing now is quietly letting the city see what they can come up with."

Rust said there are state and federal grants for tourism and historic sites that might be available for the project. Also, many corporations provide grants for such projects.

Rust said the foundation hopes to find a way to finance annual operating costs for the facility once it's developed. She said donations and grants could then be used for acquisitions and expansions.

Murphy said the overall $11 million price tag for the completed project is a "very, very preliminary" figure from the architectural firm hired on retainer by the foundation.

He said excess city tourism funds are inadequate to do either the St. Vincent's proposal or a sports complex and likely will need to be bonded.

"They've only got about $175,000, and you're not going to be able to fund anything for $175,000," he said. "You're going to have to bond this out."

One question that's arisen from discussion of the seminary project is the location of the proposed downtown exit for a planned Mississippi River bridge route.

The issue was a contentious one last year when the city council voted to align the route with Lorimier Street instead of Fountain Street.

But in renderings of the Cape Colonial Foundation project, the exit is aligned with Fountain. Murphy said the location of the exit is not crucial to the plans for the site.

"The foundation has no position on the location of the exit at all, nor do we wish to have a position on that," he said. "We're not in the street business.

"What we're going for is a real boom to the economic future of Cape Girardeau, and we want to be a good neighbor to the people in the downtown area."