TARGET STORES COMING TO CAPE GIRARDEAU

Target Stores is coming to Cape Girardeau.

Ground work is underway in Cape West Business Park for a new 97,000-square-foot Target store.

The business park, west of Interstate 55, already is home to two large retail centers -- Lowe's Home Center and Wal-Mart. Recent additions to the business park near the I-55 and Route K intersections are a Shell service station and convenience store and a Drury Suites Hotel.

Under construction in the same general area are a McDonald's restaurant and a Hampton Inn. Future plans also call for a Sam's Club near the Wal-Mart Supercenter.

The new Target store will be built just south of the Hampton Inn site.

The Cape Girardeau inspections office is reviewing plans for the new store, which it received last week.

Target Stores, headquartered in Minneapolis, is a discount retail chain and has more than 580 stores in 32 states. It is a division of Dayton Hudson Corp., one of the nation's largest general merchandise retailers.

Target, which opened its first store in 1962 in Roseville, Minn., a suburb of St. Paul, typically builds single-level stores of 80,000 to 135,000 square feet.

The company handles a variety of merchandise, including apparel for men, women and children, jewelry and accessories, housewares, health and beauty aids, pet supplies, hardware, paint and wallpaper, and many other items.

The Cape Girardeau store will be Missouri's ninth.

Target, which also is considering sites at other cities, hopes to open 60 new stores in 1994. The company already has opened 30 stores this year.

The 1990s have been a period of expansion for Target Stores. Going into 1990, Target had 420 new stores. Twenty-three stores were added in 1990, 42 in 1991, and 47 in 1993.