Work begins to rehabilitate Broadway Theatre

CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo. (KFVS) - An important and exciting day for Cape Girardeau, that’s how the coordinator for the Historic Preservation Program at Southeast Missouri State University described the beginning of a plan to repurpose the Broadway Theatre.

Steven Hoffman stood alongside developer Brendan Todt on Tuesday morning, May 30 to cut the ribbon. It’s a project more than a decade in the making.

Todt and his team plan to turn the building into apartments and retail space.

The Broadway Theatre first opened in 1921 and was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2015.

A fire in 2021 severely damaged the building.

The city had planned to tear it down until Todt unveiled a plan to save it.

Hoffman said buildings like this one are important to Cape Girardeau’s history and its future.

“I think our downtown is the reason why people want to pull of the interstate and spend some time here,” he said. “I think it’s why people want to live in this community and not move away. It really gives it its character and vitality. And so having a building like the Broadway Theatre being brought back to life, I think, just invigorates this whole Broadway district.”

Developers plan to revamp the building in three phases. The first phase is expected to take 15 months to finish.

Copyright 2023 KFVS. All rights reserved.