The City of Cape Girardeau is a historic river town, located on the Mississippi River in Southeast Missouri. The City serves as a commercial, educational and hospitality destination for a three state area. Downtown Cape Girardeau is the historic cultural center for the City, with numerous shops, government offices and institutions. Downtown is also the site for numerous festivals and events which draw many visitors to the area. As part of the Missouri DREAM Initiative, the City of Cape Girardeau commissioned PGAV to develop a strategic plan for Downtown.

The strategic plan involved analysis and recommendations for Downtown organizational structure, marketing plan, retail and housing market analyses and destination assessment. The plan identified focus areas for improvement including a riverfront park, an arts district and a university village along Broadway near the campus of Southeast Missouri State University. Each of the focus areas was developed into detail plans proposing new destination facilities:

• Main Street - river museum/aquarium mixed use development
• Riverfront Park – extended open space park with a promenade walk, civic plaza, gateways, boat docks, sculpture, fountains, amphitheatre and connections to existing trails;
• Upper Broadway – streetscape, gateways, public art, theatres and new conference hotel to create a university oriented community;
• Fountain Street Arts District – new mixed used business/gallery/housing district, Fountain Street extension and roundabout, a new greenway along Fountain Street and a new public park.

A series of public meetings and stakeholder meetings were conducted to assist PGAV in developing the strategic plan. An implementation plan and schedule were developed to guide the projected 10 year plan.