NYPL Reverses Course on Mid-Manhattan LibrarySale
Norman Oder -- Library Journal, 01/13/2009
- Sale was to fuel system renovations
- Real estate market in slump
- "Attractive terms" not available for now
The New York Public Library’s (NYPL) ambitious renovation plans have been snagged by the crash in the city’s real estate market. In March 2008, NYPL announced it would sell the aging Mid-Manhattan Library, one of the central libraries of its branch system, and use the proceeds from the real estate deal to fuel a major renovation of the flagship Humanities and Social Sciences Library (HSSL) across the street to accommodate Mid-Manhattan’s popular lending and other functions.
However, NYPL President Paul LeClerc, in a message to staff January 12. said everything’s on hold. “After several months of discussions with potential purchasers of our Mid-Manhattan Library building, our trustees have concluded that it is unlikely that we will be able to complete a sale on attractive terms at this time,” he wrote.
“Accordingly, Mid-Manhattan will remain open as an important circulating library for NYPL for the foreseeable future," he continued. "We remain committed to our overall OneNYPL strategy, so we will, of course, continue to pursue opportunities to improve service and efficiencies by consolidating collections and services, as appropriate, between Mid-Manhattan and other libraries, particularly HSSL and SIBL [Science, Industry and Business Library].” HSSL has already seen the opening of a new Children's Center, which holds much of the children's materials from Donnell Library. The building housing Donnell had been sold to a real estate developer prior to economic downturn.
