FAYETTEVILLE — Members of the Public Library’s board are scheduled to decide next month whether to bid on the adjoining City Hospital property.
The land and buildings, owned by Washington Regional Medical Center, have been discussed for months as an option for library expansion. City Hospital closed in September.
Medical center administrators acknowledged last week they have received bids for the 2.8 acres south of the library. They’re willing to give library officials more time to develop an expansion plan before they accept any offers.
“WRMC has suspended any further consideration regarding the sale of the Fayetteville City Hospital property until such time as it receives the bid of the Fayetteville Public Library and any other third parties that might have a similar interest,” Bill Bradley, the medical center’s CEO, said in a letter sent June 20 in response to an open records request from Northwest Arkansas Newspapers.
Bradley declined to provide details about the offers, citing a competitive advantage disclosure would give others interested in bidding on the property.
David Johnson, library director, told board members Monday the offers have fallen into two camps: apartments for University of Arkansas students and long-term care facilities.
“We definitely are interested in the City Hospital property,” Johnson said Tuesday. But, he added, library officials need more time to figure out if expansion next door is their best option, and, if so, how they would pay buying the property.
The library retained The Real Estate Consultants of Fayetteville to appraise the City Hospital building during the next two weeks.
Johnson asked Jeff Scherer to fast-track a space needs assessment Scherer’s Minneapolis-based architecture firm began working on in February. The assessment will be used to create a 20-year plan for the library. Scherer was the chief architect for the library, which opened in 2004 at School Avenue and Mountain Street.
The library is about 88,000 square feet. A draft of the assessment calls for an additional 67,000 square feet.
Johnson said he expects an update to the space needs assessment July 15. The library’s board is scheduled to meet the following week.
Johnson said more room is needed primarily to accommodate library programs and speakers.
Johnson said staff members have had to clear the library’s main floor for big events, such as a black-tie gala in October where Emmy-award-winning filmmaker Larry Foley’s documentary on Fayetteville history was screened and when humor columnist and author Dave Barry visited the library in April.
Hundreds of visitors sat on the floor of the children’s area when “Trout Fishing in America” performed last year as part of summer reading club events. The Walker Community Room, which fits about 190 people, was full during a panel discussion last month on plans for a controversial hog farm in Newton County, Johnson said. And the 278,000-item collection is quickly approaching the 300,000 items the library was designed to hold.
A 750-seat auditorium could be used for a variety of speakers, musical performances or public programs. New study rooms, computer labs, an enlarged story time room and more shelving also are planned.
Johnson said the Public Library Foundation, a nonprofit group raising money to support collections and programs, has available cash to buy the property. The foundation reported $7.3 million in assets in 2011 filings with the Internal Revenue Service. The foundation’s board would have to commit money to the purchase.
Washington Regional managed City Hospital as a nursing home from the early 1990s until it closed. The medical center assumed ownership of the property in October 2011 in exchange for 1.1 acres at North Hills Boulevard and Futrall Drive where the city built a traffic roundabout. As a condition for the land swap, the city was given the right of first refusal if the property were to be sold.
Tom Olmstead, general counsel for the center, said Wednesday hospital administrators welcome a bid from the library. He added they have a fiduciary obligation to get as much money from the sale as possible.
Olmstead said offers haven't been accepted for the BrookStone Assisted Living Residence on East Longview Street and three undeveloped tracts of land near the North Hills Medical Park.