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Old library in Largo may become rubble

Rather than renovate the old facility, officials say it's more sensible to build an arts-community center from the ground up.

By LORRI HELFAND
Published October 29, 2006

LARGO - After spending the last 20 months talking about what to do with the old Largo Library, city leaders on Tuesday night suggested tearing it down and starting from scratch.

Collman & Karsky Architects presented its plan at the city work session to turn the library into an arts and community center.

But the estimated cost of $5.28-million was about $3-million more than the city budgeted for the project.

The 36,100-square-foot library, at 351 East Bay Drive, has been empty since the new $21-million library on Central Park Drive opened in July 2005.

Some commissioners said the cost was too high to create a mediocre facility out of the 1970s-era building.

If the city was going to fork out millions of dollars, it might as well create a state-of-the-art facility rather than try to "shoehorn" programs into an archaic, odd-shaped building, said Commissioner Andy Guyette, who is an engineer.

"I feel we're sacrificing the park, cultural center and new library by leaving this building here and making do," Guyette said.

Commissioners Gigi Arntzen and Mary Gray Black also were open to starting over. But commissioner Gay Gentry wanted to move forward with plans to renovate the center, concerned that starting from scratch could delay the project for years.

Mayor Pat Gerard was initially reluctant.

But by the end of the meeting, Gerard agreed with the concept of building a new center and suggested starting a capital campaign.

It costs the city about $35,000 a year to cover the old library's utility costs and to maintain its various mechanical and alarm systems, City Manager Steve Stanton said.

For that reason, he told commissioners, "We would want to demolish this building as soon as possible."

Largo isn't the first town locally to abandon plans to renovate an old building for use as an arts center.

Oldsmar officials bought the Kumar mansion, an unfinished 1920s hotel overlooking Old Tampa Bay, in the spring of 2003 from Roger and Lila Kumar for $2.2-million. They had hoped to transform it into a cultural center, but scrapped the renovation plan in early 2004 after learning that repairs would cost as much as $3.1-million.

Lorri Helfand can be reached at 445-4155 or lorri@sptimes.com

[Last modified October 28, 2006, 20:12:41]