FAYETTEVILLE —A $2 million offer by the Fayetteville Public Library Board will be made to the Washington Regional Medical Center to buy the City Hospital property south of the library.
The board determined the dollar amount during a special meeting Monday night. The $2 million will come from the library reserve, and use of that money will not jeopardize programs and services offered to the public, David Johnson, library director, said.
At A Glance
Fayetteville Public Library Expansion
The Fayetteville Public Library plans to almost double its square footage, if it’s able to purchase the City Hospital property from the Washington Regional Medical Center. The library would use up to 55 percent of the 4.19 acres, according to a library plan.
• Current library space: 88,000 square feet
• Additional Area: 80,000 square feet
• Current parking spaces: 207
• Additional parking spaces: 373
Source: Fayetteville Public Library
Board members said they know their offer will likely not match other bids offered to the hospital. A July appraisal commissioned by the library values the property at $3.27 million.
Library board members plan to send a committee of Kim Agee, board president, Johnson and the library’s attorney and accountant, to meet with medical center administrators and board members.
The meeting would try to work out terms for the sale and also discuss the “intangible” value of keeping the property for public use under the library instead of private use, such as an apartment complex development.
The board also plans to offer the medical center naming opportunities for a future library expansion project on the property, if the two parties come to an agreement for the sale.
“I think what we have to offer, besides a substantial amount of money, is the intangible but very real benefit of being associated with something the community loves,” Agee said about the medical center selling its property to the library.
The 2030 Master Plan for the library shows using 55 percent of the 4.19 acres of the City Hospital property for the expansion project. That project would create a multistory facility that includes an expanded children’s area, a new young adults area along with a multipurpose hall for special events and programs and also hundreds of additional parking spots.
The project would add 80,000 square feet to the library’s 88,000 square feet, according to the plan.
Paying for the construction of a library expansion would require a separate fundraising effort, Johnson said.
“We’ll then begin a capital campaign to start raising funds privately to help offset to the expansion cost,” he said.
Medical center administrators last month acknowledged they received bids for the property, but declined to release details after a Freedom of Information request. The medical center cited releasing details would give a competitive advantage to others interested in bidding for the property.
The medical center has no particular date or time frame for selecting bids, Gina Maddox, a medical center spokeswoman, said Monday.
“We are expecting to hear from the library by the end of this month. I’m hopeful that our original desires about that property will come to reality,” Bill Bradley, medical center CEO, told his board July 16.
The City Hospital closed in September. The medical center managed City Hospital as a nursing home from the early 1990s until it closed.
The medical center assumed ownership of the property from Fayetteville in October 2011 in exchange for 1.1 acres at North Hills Boulevard and Futrall Drive, the city-built roundabout near the medical center.
The property would return to Fayetteville ownership, if the medical center’s board selects the library’s offer to purchase the land.