There’s been a plot twist in the proposal to build an expanded downtown library.

Lawrence Public Library leaders are now conceding that they’re going to have to consider scaling back their plans by up to 40 percent in order to cut $15 million to $20 million off the project’s estimated price tag.

“I suspect that option will not be the library board or staff’s first choice,” said library director Bruce Flanders. “We feel pretty strongly that it would result in a pretty serious compromise of services. But we also know this comes down to economic realities and political realities. We have to do what the community will support.”

Private developers who have made proposals to partner with the city on the project also are changing their plans. Members of the Simons family – who have proposed building the library in a portion of the former Riverfront Mall – are working with the Fritzel group to join forces on the project.

The Fritzel group – which includes members of the Gene Fritzel Construction Co. – had proposed building the library on a new Vermont Street location as part of a much larger redevelopment of the Vermont Street corridor.

Angie Hurd, second from right, gives a cheer for the successful completion of a scavenger hunt by her daughter Mollie Hurd and Mollie's classmates at the Lawrence Public Library. On a field trip to the library Friday, from left, are Perry kindergartners Sara Haggard, Cole Logan, Kayla Kennon, Hurd and Mollie. Library leaders are looking at downsizing their plans for a new library project by about 40 percent to try to save 5 million to 0 million on the project.

Talks now center on the Fritzel group supporting putting the library in the Riverfront building but combining with the Simons group to create a large development district that would spur private redevelopment on portions of both Vermont and New Hampshire streets. The Simons said that would produce more tax revenue to help offset the cost of the new library.

The Simons group is led by members of The World Company, which owns the Journal-World.

Another private developer, Jeff Shmalberg, also said he has significantly changed his plans for a library in the 900 block of New Hampshire Street.

Library leaders have been talking about the need for an expanded or new library for more than a year. They point to long waits for the library’s computers, overbooked meeting-room spaces and a consultant’s report that states the library is undersized by about 30,000 square feet, based on Lawrence’s population, as reasons why the community needs to more room.

Scaling back

The big question remains, though, whether all this library talk should be shelved under the category of fiction or nonfiction.

City commissioners have never committed to any library expansion, but they rather have just said they are interested in studying it. The project also is expected to be large enough that it will require voter approval either in the April city election or a subsequent election.

Whether the project wins approval from anybody likely will depend on cost. After meeting this week with City Manager David Corliss, Flanders said he was instructed to explore an option that would cap the cost of the library expansion at $30 million.

Settling in with a book together after a Friday morning scavenger hunt in the children's room at the Lawrence Public Library, John Hazlett, Perry, reads with Perry kindergartners, from right, Darcey Summerville, Hazlett's granddaughter, and Hazel Youngquist.

Mayor Mike Amyx said he thought the lower-cost option was an essential part of a library report that is expected to be completed late this month or early November.

“We don’t want to do a Band-Aid fix on anything, but you have to balance the project against all the other projects the city has,” Amyx said.

Shorter shelf life

Flanders believes an 80,000-square-foot library could be built for $30 million. That would be almost twice as large as the 45,000-square-foot building the library occupies at 707 Vt.

A library consultant recommends that Lawrence needs a 130,000-square-foot library to adequately serve the community through 2025.

“I would have to say that it would be impossible to make it to 2025 in that size of facility alone,” Flanders said. “We would have to do satellite service, or branches, sooner than we thought. I think we would soon outgrow the building.”

The consultant has estimated that the current library needs to be 72,000 square feet to meet the community’s demands.

Flanders and his staff have come up with a proposal that would reduce the original 130,000-square-foot proposal by 13,000 square feet. He said he felt that was about as small as a new library could be and still serve the community through 2025. That option also will be presented in the library report that will be delivered to city commissioners. The price of that new building, though, was expected to be $40 million to $42 million.

Private options

Commissioners won’t really know the true price of a library, though, until they also hear updated proposals from private developers who want to partner with the city.

The four developers are already working on new, but smaller, building plans.

Dan Simons, who is leading the Riverfront proposal, said the talks with the Fritzel group would result in both parties working to have the library built in the former Riverfront mall space.

“I’m still very excited about the library on the Riverfront,” Simons said. “Now that there has a been a change in size, I think we’re able to emphasize that our site is an existing 200,000-square-foot building that could be scaled to any size.”

The Fritzel plan had proposed new office, condo, hotel and retail projects for the Vermont Street corridor. The Simons plan had called for office, retail, condo and hotel development as well on parts of New Hampshire Street. Both plans would have created large amounts of new parking options.

The general concept in the cooperation, Simons said, would be to create one large tax increment finance district that would encompass the areas to be redeveloped on Vermont and New Hampshire streets.

Tax increment financing is a device that allows new tax revenue generated by private development to be used for building public infrastructure that is included in the projects, such as streets, parking and public buildings. Simons believes the new district would be large enough to significantly offset the costs of a new library.

“I feel very confident that we could deliver a first-class library on the Riverfront for less than $30 million,” Simons said.

Attempts to reach Thomas Fritzel, who is leading the Fritzel group, were unsuccessful. But Bob Schulte, a vice president for the Gene Fritzel Construction Co., confirmed talks were progressing.

Farther down New Hampshire Street, Shmalberg confirmed that the look of his project for the 900 block of New Hampshire had changed. The building no longer would span over New Hampshire Street.

“I thought that was a great plan, but for a lot of people at this point in time, they had trouble with the idea of going over the street,” Shmalberg said.

By making the building smaller, the library now could fit on the southeast corner of Ninth and New Hampshire streets. Shmalberg said the site has strong possibilities because the library could directly tie into the adjacent Lawrence Arts Center, if leaders of both organizations so desired. Shmalberg also has preliminary designs that create a special collections room atop the library. At about 60 feet in the air, the room would provide vistas of most of Lawrence, he said.

Shmalberg declined to discuss how much his library plan may cost to construct, saying it was premature until a definite size had been settled on.

A development group led by Lawrence businessman Doug Compton also is still interested in the project. Dan Sabatini, the architect for the group, said he was working on plans to rearrange the layout of buildings for their site on the northeast corner of Ninth and New Hampshire streets.

He said the group was considering moving the library to the corner of the site to increase the library’s visibility. Previously a commercial building that would house a hotel, a bank and condos took that prime location. That building would continue to be part of the project, but would be back farther on the site.

Sabatini also did not have cost estimates for his group’s new library proposal.