Revised cost estimates that reversed expectations led the Springfield-Greene County Library District to make a final construction decision for its Republic Branch library.
The library's Board of Trustees during a meeting April 16 decided to build an entirely new structure on the land at the library’s current address, 921 N. Lindsay Ave.
The decision was made after hearing from officials with Nabholz Construction, the construction manager at risk for the project, said library district spokesperson Vickie Hicks. Nabholz was chosen for the role at the end of March, and began working with architects from Paragon Architecture on construction.
Library trustees chose to build a 20,000-square-foot library immediately north of the existing structure. Once the new building is completed, the existing building would be demolished and converted into greenspace.
The plan features alternates that could add or remove square footage, depending on costs and available money. It would provide a larger community room, meeting space and an improved drop-off lane for materials.
Designers in March proposed that the Republic library’s existing 10,000-square-foot building was structurally sound, and that renovating it alongside a new smaller building would be more affordable. However, Nabholz officials told the board Tuesday that ensuring reliable connections between the two buildings would be more expensive, Hicks said.
“Once (builders) put numbers to it, a new building turned out to be cheaper,” Hicks said. “They were planning to join the existing building with the extension, but that ended up being far more expensive than they expected.”
The board is working to keep the cost of the expansion project around $10 million. The library will be able to use $4.5 million in American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) grants for the project. A cost estimate will be presented to the board of trustees later this year, once Nabholz and Paragon complete a design and development phase.
Once the total cost is known, the board will begin to develop a funding plan, and will decide if the library district will rely on bonding to finance construction in Republic.
The decision keeps the library near residential areas and schools in the main part of Republic, and away from new schools and parks under development in a northeastern extremity.
