Owner hopes renovation will help clean up neighborhood

Rudi Keller

Monday, December 10, 2007



In the 1880s, Cape Girardeau merchant J.F. Schwepker built a large two-story brick home at the corner of Lorimier and Good Hope streets.

Over the years, the house has seen good and bad. When most recently occupied, the home had been broken up into eight small apartments, some not much bigger than a closet.



Now, it is going through another transformation, one owner Jason Coalter hopes will set the tone for other landlords in the area immediately adjacent to the River Campus and in line with ideas promoted when Cape Girardeau was chosen as a DREAM Initiative city.

Link

^ Good find, DeBaliviere!



The Southeast River Campus and the DREAM Initiative are already paying dividends for downtown Cape Girardeau. The center of downtown Cape Girardeau has always been fine, but its southern edge (around Good Hope Street, just one block north of the River Campus) has always been a haven for drugs and prostitution. Now, there's much more incentive to redevelop this area, which has many older homes and businesses that can be rehabbed nicely. And as developers move into this area, the gaps between the northern and southern ends of downtown Cape, along with the gaps between north and south Cape Girardeau, will be filled as well.



If I was a developer, I'd spend a fair amount of money in and around downtown Cape Girardeau. There's so much untapped potential that I've noticed for years, and thankfully, Southeast Missouri State's conversion of the old St. Vincent's Seminary into the River Campus has kicked the door down for developers and has made the area more attractive already.



I'm reminded of Missouri State University, because as the university continues its march north and west toward downtown Springfield, suddenly investments in the future of downtown Springfield are much more attractive.

I just had a chance to check-out the new River Campus, and I gotta say, they did a really nice job on it. The old building looks great, and the new addition adds a bold, modern look. I'm sure the view of the new building with the dramatic (new) River Bridge in the background will make lots of cover-shots.



And I love the big old houses just to the north. Looks like the ones immediately adjacent to the (old) River Bridge abutment have all either been rehabbed, or are in the process right now. It's going to be a great neighborhood.

Here is some more info on the River Campus:



Link

^

Have you picked a school yet?



Here's more info on DREAM:

DREAM plan for Cape due in January

Friday, November 7, 2008

By Rudi Keller

Southeast Missourian



The DREAM Initiative is still alive, even if the governor who gave it life has only two months left in office.



One of the signature programs of Gov. Matt Blunt's administration, the DREAM, or Downtown Revitalization and Economic Assistance for Missouri, Initiative awards money to smaller cities across Missouri for surveys and planning help. The program also puts those cities on a priority list for economic development grants and tax credits.



On Thursday, at the future home of the Children's Museum, 502 Broadway, consultants and their local partners in the DREAM process held an open house to discuss the progress of the program and give some insight into how they are thinking.



So far, Cape Girardeau, one of the first 10 cities included in the program, has received $2.6 million in grants and tax credits. The city is about halfway through the three-year process. Reports on the results of focus groups, land use studies, visitor surveys and market analyses are finished or in the final drafting stages.

Link

In depth article in the Southeast Missourian highlighting a lot of the progress Cape Girardeau has been experiencing these last couple years: http://www.semissourian.com/story/2174285.html

I still think they should have incorporated the old handball court somehow.

wonder if getting designed as an MPO after the last census had anything to do with the recent progress....Cape/City of Jackson crossed the 50,000 population threshold in the last census, that automatically made them an MPO. Now they are able to have more local control and say on transportation projects.

Dalhoussie is a great golf course.