River Campus is ready to move ahead

When the Cape Girardeau City Council meets next Monday, it is likely to give final approval to financial arrangement for the city's share of the funding for the River Campus, which within four or five years could be ready for its first students.

The River Campus is the informal name given by officials at city hall and at Southeast Missouri State University to a new campus for the university's visual and performing arts programs. The campus will be on the grounds of the former St. Vincent's Seminary along Morgan Oak Street between the old bridge across the Mississippi River and the new bridge being constructed farther south.

The old seminary grounds are rich in history. More than that, the site offers one of the most spectacular views of the river to be found in Cape Girardeau. The Roman Catholic religious order that owned and operated the seminary for more than a century closed the seminary here and another one in Perryville, Mo., years ago.

Thanks to a generous bequest from Cape Girardeau resident B.W. Harrison, who lives across the street from the seminary property, the university was able to purchase the land and its building a few years ago. Based on campus needs, anticipated interest in arts education and the opportunity to have a major impact on the economic development of the downtown area, the university decided to use the land for its arts campus. The campus will feature a performing arts center, theaters, classrooms and a museum.

The project's cost was estimated at nearly $36 million when it was first proposed. To fund the project, both the city and the university each agreed to raise $8.9 million. And the university immediately began seeking the rest of the funding from the state.

Cape Girardeau voters in 1998 approved a measure to use revenue from sales taxes on hotels, motels and restaurants for the city's portion of the River Campus costs. A second measure to issue city bonds for the project failed. Shortly after that election, the university found another way to issue bonds through a state agency that does not require voter approval. With a final vote by the city council expected next week, the university plans to issue bonds next spring.

Although the city's portion of the financial arrangements has been the target of lawsuits, city and university officials are confident the project can proceed. The state has appropriated $16.55 million for the River Campus. And the university's foundation has guaranteed the remainder of just over $10 million, of which it has already raised $7 million.

In giving its first round of approval earlier this month, city council members repeatedly cited both the cultural and economic-development benefits of the River Campus. This has been the thinking all along. The new arts campus will be an anchor for the southern edge of downtown. It will provide a visual welcome for motorists driving into the city from Illinois across the new Bill Emerson Memorial Bridge set to open late next year.

And the River Campus provides an impetus for the city to develop a corridor from the new bridge route to the downtown area.

The River Campus promises to be yet another in a long line of major advances for Cape Girardeau.