Southeast Missouri State University Foundation buys Broadway properties

The Southeast Missouri State University Foundation has acquired two properties on Broadway in Cape Girardeau that will be used for university parking.

The foundation received Howard's Athletic Goods at 900 Broadway and the former Sinclair gas station at 834 Broadway through a charitable trust from owner Dave Howard. A charitable trust allows the donor to give the property to a private foundation or organization while receiving income until he or she dies. Upon death, the private foundation receives the remaining value left in the trust.

University spokeswoman Ann Hayes said the university working with an architect to develop plans to raze the buildings and design parking and landscaping. The university also plans to raze the building the foundation owns that once housed eClips at 904 Broadway.

No definite time frame has been set for razing the buildings.

Southeast plans to work with the city of Cape Girardeau and Old Town Cape to ensure cosmetic concerns are kept in mind as the parking lot is designed.

"Our first priority is on the south side of the intersection of Broadway and Henderson because that will be parking for residents of the new residence hall being constructed on the northeast corner of Broadway and Henderson," Hayes said.

Southeast president Ken Dobbins said new parking is needed for that growing area of campus, which includes the residence hall under construction, alumni center, recreation center and Southeast Innovation Center.

"We don't want to be a sea of asphalt," Dobbins said. "It's important to have green areas incorporated in that design because when you take down Howard's and the other buildings you need to make sure that area is aesthetically pleasing."

Others like historic preservationist and Southeast history professor Steven Hoffman expressed concern about the demolition of the buildings. Howard's had been in the building at 900 Broadway for 62 years.

"It's a shame when historic buildings come down when there could have been a better use for them other than parking, although I recognize that parking is a concern for the university," Hoffman said. "It's unfortunate from a preservation point of view that the university couldn't have been more creative in how they approached the use of the buildings."

Hoffman said that while the move will add needed parking, he said it will not improve the aesthetics along Broadway.

"Although I will mourn their loss and possible reuse of the buildings, I won't chain myself to the bulldozer," Hoffman said. "Tearing down a building is never a catalyst for creating change. What this will do is ease some of the parking pressures of the university which are very real."

bblackwell@semissourian.com

388-3628

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