Library board considers moving west-side branch from Westdale Mall

The city's library board is looking at an option for the west-side branch library that would move it from its longtime home, Westdale Mall.

The library's director, Bob Pasicznyuk, on Thursday said the library board will hold public forums at 6 p.m. on Jan. 17 and Jan. 24 to hear from the public about the future of a west-side library branch and about where it should be located.

Pasicznyuk said the library board's Building Committee has spent some time reviewing site options, which have now been whittled down to two. One calls for the renovation of the current west-side library site in what had been the former Osco drugstore space in Westdale Mall. And the second option is to renovate a portion of a former Target store, across Williams Boulevard SW from the mall.

A third option - the renovation of the former Bishop's Buffet space on the mall's second floor - has now been nixed because mall walls supporting the floor can't handle the weight from the library's stacks of books, the library director explained.

In the aftermath of the 2008 flood, which ruined the central library on First Street SE, the library board turned the small west-side library branch on the mall's second floor into a temporary central library in a larger spot in the former Osco site on the mall's first floor. The library's administrative offices are across the hall from the Osco site.

With the new central library slated to open in June 2013, it's now time to consider a more permanent arrangement for the city's west-side branch library, Pasicznyuk said.

He said the library board is looking for a site that features accessible parking, access to public transit, restrooms, a long-term lease and manageable operating costs. The board also favors a site with windows and natural light, a simple floor plan, street visibility, a drive-through book drop and the ability to promote redevelopment around the site.

Pasicznyuk acknowledged that the option to relocate in a portion of the former Target store better met more of the items on the library board's wish list. For instance, the former Target store has exterior windows, would allow a simpler floor plan and would allow a book-drop that would feed directly into the building.

For now, he said the landlords of both the mall and the former Target store have provided lease bids that he characterized as comparable in price. He called both offers “opening” ones, noting that the library board will continue to make the case that the library is a desirable tenant, pays its bills and attracts people to retail businesses next to it.

“Our customers buy things,” he said of those now coming to the library in the struggling Westdale Mall.

Among the considerations for the branch library site, said the library director, is a current cost of $40,000 a year that the state of Iowa pays in lease fees to house an Iowa Substance Abuse Information Center at the library and to warehouse materials for the center. Now, those lease payments go for a separate space in the mall and for a 5,800 square foot warehouse area in Marion. Moving the branch library to a spot in the former Target building, which has an available loading dock, would allow the library to incorporate the center and its warehouse into the branch library and use the state funds to help pay for the west-side branch's lease payments, Pasicznyuk said.

He said the library board feels that the Westdale Mall area has been and continues to be a good spot for a west-side branch, and he said some other available commercial properties nearby have too-high lease costs or are not available.

The library director notes that the city of Cedar Rapids is part of a book-sharing network with libraries in Marion and Hiawatha, and he said Cedar Rapids residents nearer the Marion and Hiawatha libraries on the city's east side use those. The city's need for a branch library has been and continues to be on the city's west side, he said.

Asked what he thought residents might most say about the two options for the west-side branch, Pasicznyuk said he expected them to say, “I just want a great library and I don't want to pay more than I need to pay for it.”

He said he did not think that comments would center on keeping the library in the mall with the idea that it might help keep the mall viable. The mall's future, he said, likely will be different from what it had been, and he said a branch library located as a tenant across the street in the former Target building would be nimble enough to move should a transformation of the mall site make such a move sensible.

Currently, the library now uses about 21,000 square feet of space in the mall for the library and its computer center, and the proposed renovation of the spot would result in a 25,000-square-foot branch library. A branch library would be about 20,500 square feet in size on the east side of the 85,000-square-foot former Target building if that option is chosen.

The library board could pick a site as soon as February with renovations complete in October or November. Renovation costs will be paid by private funds and grants, not revenue from property taxes.

Pasicznyuk said the library board has decided not to pursue the construction of a new building to house the west-side library branch at a time when he said the city is doing a lot of other post-flood rebuilding.

However, “If someone has a plan (for a new building), I'm all ears,” he added.