City eyes new approach to blight with RFPs

The City of Cape Girardeau is hoping a new approach to developing blighted property might turn around a couple of eyesores on Good Hope Street.

As reported by Mark Bliss, the buildings at 631 and 633 Good Hope Streets are in disrepair. A third building collapsed in 2014, and the city levied a $51,684 tax lien against the property to recover the cost of clean-up.

The owner of the property now lives in California and according to the city does not plan to make further investments in the property.

So the city got to work on trying to figure out how to prevent the condemnation process. It struck an agreement with the property owner, who has agreed to donate the property to a developer selected by the city, and the tax lien would be transferred to the developer.

The lien then would be waived by the city upon the substantial completion of the developer's project.

The city has announced publicly it wants to receive request for proposals (RFP) from developers on how they would revitalize the property.

We appreciate the city for coming up with an innovative approach for this property. Even more, we like that the city is seeking proposals from the public at large in an open process rather than focusing on one or two developers quietly.

We hope good ideas come forward, and this seems like this could be an attractive arrangement. The property would essentially be free, but the developer would have to sink a lot of money into the project to make it usable. The buildings were erected somewhere around 1880.

This seems like a good property to try out a new approach to bringing life back to a blighted area. If it works, this type of arrangement could be used elsewhere in the city where buildings are in peril of collapse and condemnation.