Marquette Tech District opens new opportunities

The Marquette Tower at 338 Broadway, adjacent from the Marquette Center and H-H Building at 400 Broadway, are undergoing redevelopment into a technology district to house technology-based businesses and attract visitors to Cape Girardeau. The Marquette Hotel will serve as office space for local entrepreneurs, while the H-H Building and Marquette Center will become a 95-bedroom Marriott Courtyard Hotel.

Codefi, a co-working center located in the former federal courthouse building and the anchoring business of the project, will reside on three floors of the tower to provide space for technology-based businesses.

Dr. James Stapleton, founder of Codefi and former associate professor of entrepreneurship at Southeast Missouri State University, said companies co-located in an area can help each other rather than compete, and Codefi was in need of expanding its space and opportunities for such companies.

“About six months to a year after the opening of Codefi we began to have space constraints in our building,” Stapleton said. “We had more companies that started space and needed space than we could get our hands on. All the owners and partners involved with Codefi care about the community and want to do what we can to provide opportunities for people to start and grow technology-based companies.”

Stapleton said Codefi’s location at the former courthouse didn’t have enough space for student involvement in the business community, but the Marquette Tech District will provide new opportunities for Southeast students.

“For the first time, students will be able to join at an affordable discounted rate to work in Codefi, get to know people there on a day-to-day basis and participate in projects and activities,” Stapleton said.

Student membership, which provides everyday access to Codefi’s space 24 hours a day and high-speed Wi-Fi, will be offered at $35 per month, according to Stapleton. Regular individual membership is $75 per month.

John Mehner, president and chief Executive Officer of the Cape Girardeau Area Chamber of Commerce, said the chamber relocated to the tower Oct. 20-21, officially opening Oct. 24 to combine with its subsidiaries and be in proximity to its partners.

Mehner added he hopes opportunities will arise with Southeast students due to the closer location to the university.

“There’s definitely synergy there,” Mehner said. “We hope that it will help expose our Convention and Visitor’s Bureau and other things to university folks. The university is a huge feeder for us from a visitor standpoint, both with international students and other students. Hopefully we’ll continue to build our visitor base.”

Stapleton said the Marquette Tech District will be providing gigabit internet alongside Big River Communications, which will be accessible to those within the tower, the Marriott and companies “plugged in within the neighborhood.”

“The third Tech District concept is about access to technology, so we’ve put a fiber optic network around the district,” Stapleton said. “To share the district with the community, we’re adding a free broadband Wi-Fi network in the area. Now students that come downtown will have a free high-speed public network to tap into.”

In addition, the district will provide three different restaurants, two within the tower and one within the hotel, according to Stapleton.

Stapleton said the office spaces in the Marquette Tower will be open mid-November, and floors that have completed or nearly-completed construction have been rented out. The Marriott is expected to be open fall 2017.