SEMO to solicit hotel proposals within next few weeks

Ken Dobbins' idea for a River Campus-based hotel is rapidly moving from a concept to an imperative, fueled by Southeast Missouri State University's looming student residence space crunch.

Dobbins said requests for proposals are expected to go out in the next couple of weeks to would-be suitors for the hotel plan, and the goal is a hospitality property on River Campus land by the 2012 fall semester.

"We don't have any more room right now. We are booked," he said of the university's student residence halls.

Like last summer, when Southeast faced record-shattering enrollments, the university is formalizing plans to defer admissions of late-arriving new students within a 50-mile radius. But this year, the cap is coming ahead of schedule.

"Last year, we were at capacity, but that didn't kick in until toward the end of July, a month later than this," said Dennis Holt, Southeast's vice president of enrollment management and student success at Southeast.

Holt said a plan could be in place by early July.

Checking enrollment and making sure there are enough rooms to meet student housing demand could involve options from converting student lounge space to booking temporary accommodations at Cape Girardeau hotels.

Some 25 students could see their admissions deferred to the spring semester.

It's a matter of more growing pains for a university that has seen enrollment break records year after year over much of the past decade. Enrollment approached 11,270 students in the 2010 fall semester, and Holt said he'd be surprised if enrollment doesn't hit 11,500 this fall. Projections peg enrollment near 12,000 students by 2014, he said.

While residence life officials are focused on short-term fixes to the space constraints, Holt said the long-term planning process is critical if Southeast wants to avoid further student housing issues.

That's where the hotel comes in, Dobbins said.

Under the plan, the university would partner with a developer and operator of a national hotel chain. The developers would build the hotel on about three acres the Southeast Missouri State University Foundation has purchased or received over the last decade -- two acres on the west side of the Fountain Street extension and more than an acre on the east side, near the River Campus.

Much of the hotel would serve leisure and business travelers. But during the school year, Dobbins said, the property would house as many as 100 visual and performing arts students -- basically built-in revenue. Southeast would not have a financial stake in the investment, he said, other than the residential commitment.

"This is very important," he said, noting that interest among hospitality operators and developers is building.

Current projections show about 1,900-plus new students set to sign housing contracts, Holt said. The numbers appear to be outpacing last fall's numbers, when 1,929 new students inked residence agreements. That was up more than 100 from the previous year, Holt said.

With an expected increase in transfer students and returning residents, demand could top student housing's capacity -- which is about 3,000 -- by 100 tenants, Holt said. Deferred admissions could cut that number in half, he said.

Residence life administrators are looking at doubling up in adviser rooms and converting campus demonstration rooms and student lounges into rooms.

"We are looking at doing some squeezing in our Greek housing, putting non-Greek students in a bed here, a bed there," Holt said.

mkittle@semissourian.com

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