City to own library building
Expectations are that Powell River will have its new library by the middle of next year.
Reading from a prepared statement at the Tuesday, September 1, committee of the whole meeting, City of Powell River Mayor Dave Formosa said he was proud to advise that the purchase agreement for the new library at Crossroads Village Shopping Mall at Joyce Avenue and Alberni Street has been completed.
The agreement details a purchase price for a two-storey, 34,000-square foot building at $2.3 million, and fixes renovation costs at $2.6 million, for a total cost of $4.9 million.
“This is well within the budgeted amount of $6 million, and below the $10 or $11 million we were looking at for Willingdon South,” Formosa said. “The vendor has confirmed the tenants on the upper level will remain in place. The library will occupy the long-vacant main floor and grow from an unacceptable 6,000 square feet in its current location, to a much more appropriate 17,000 square foot location at Crossroads Village.”
Formosa said the agreement calls for the transfer of ownership in October and it is planned the new library will be open by mid-2016.
“Importantly, this announcement sets the stage for the library board’s community campaign to raise $1.4 million toward the project,” Formosa said. “The city will secure long-term borrowing for the remaining $3.5 million as authorized in the successful municipal referendum of November 2014.
“It’s time we get behind the fundraising campaign and build the library that the majority of us all want and need.”
