>Karen states: > >Carol you bring up some good points for choosing the current site for the >library. But I want to bring up one down fall to that choice. That if the >current site is chosen then the collection has to be moved to another site >and then of course moved back again. I have heard from a person who >currently works at the library that this process could add $10 million >dollars to the library cost. Has anyone else heard this?
This was a major issue all summer. I attended the Implementation Committee meeting when the staff went through the numbers. It turns out that while the move and lease and associated costs of a temporary library will be about $8 million (Carol--correct me if my numbers are off). However, it was estimated that it would cost at least $3 million to stay in the current library because of major health and safety improvements that have to be made (It does not come anywhere close to meeting current fire codes for public buildings) and repair of things like heating and air conditioning (it was without AC for about a week last summer because they could not find a replacement part for the 40 year old equipment) and I think a roof--I think those costs totalled about 2 million. Finally, if the second block of the two block project is not started at about the same time as the library (independent of which block it is built on), we loose the tax increment that is to pay for some improvements (including the skyway connection.) Carol mentioned $10 million. I seem to remember $3 million tax increment. The idea of just turning the north block into underground parking with a park on top is a great idea. It could result in the best of both worlds. All the city is getting for it is housing (assuming the housing market downtown doesn't tank before it's built) and the tax increment. If it is only $3 million, maybe we can turn up the private fundraising a notch (now aimed at $12 million) and try to get $15 million in private support. (And this would be much better than the VERY small public plaza that could be included in the south block plans), And, how about getting a 100 year lease for a plaza on the western 1/4 of the Ritz block? (The city has a 100 year easement of some type on the plaza on the Marquette Plaza block) If we're thinking out of the box, this could really make the whole north end of the mall great. _______________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A Civil City Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest option, and more: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
