TWO NEW PROJECTS SET FOR WEST END

More development is under way in Cape Girardeau's thriving west end.

A new McDonald's restaurant and a service station and convenience story is under construction in the Cape West Business Park, at the intersection of Siemers Drive and Route K.

Work also is under way to develop the site of the former Howard Johnson Motor Lodge, near the Interstate 55 and Route K intersection.

The convenience store is a project of Drury Southwest Inc. of Cape Girardeau.

Construction on the new McDonald's is expected to start this month. The restaurant will be adjacent to the service station project.

"We hope to open the new restaurant by Thanksgiving," said Jerry Davis, a Cape Girardeau businessman who owns McDonald's operations at Jackson, Sikeston, Charleston and Cape Girardeau.

Davis recently opened a McDonald's restaurant inside Wal-Mart Supercenter in Cape West Business Park. He sees no problem with two McDonald's in such close proximity. "The new restaurant will attract traffic from the Interstate," he said.

The latest projects bring to nine the number of businesses in Cape West Business Park. The latest business to open in the tract is Drury Suites Hotel, which opened June 4.

The five-story, 87-room hotel at the southwest corner of Interstate 55 and Route K, is operated by Drury Inns Inc.

Major retail businesses in the park include the Wal-Mart Supercenter, with more than 160,000 square feet, and Lowe's Home Center, with a 110,000-square-foot building and a separate 40,000-square-foot lawn and garden center.

The business park also includes Bluff City Beer, a warehouse operation, Stone Mountain Carpet Outlet Supply, D.I. Supply and a service center for the U.S. Post Office, which is a 37,600-square-foot building.

Sam's Discount store, which has been delayed since the project was announced two years ago, remains a prospect for the business park. The latest report from the Bentonville, Ark. headquarters of Wal-Mart and Sam's, is that the project is scheduled for late 1995 or early 1996.