Emerald Knights looks nice on cost in new FEMA library-cost analysis

The Emerald Knights site will cost the city more than $4 million less to purchase for a new $45-million library than the other two proposed library sites, the Gazette Communications block and the TrueNorth block, figures released this afternoon show.

However, it's far from clear right now what the numbers mean: They don't factor in, for instance, the cost to provide for parking. And this week, Bob Pasicznyuk, the city's library director, said the latest thinking is that both the Emerald Knights site and the Gazette Communications site would need a two-story, 220-space parking ramp at $15,000 a space. That is $3.3 million.

The TrueNorth site – which is the one of the three that the library board did not endorse – apparently would not need a parking ramp what with the city's Fourth Avenue parkade nearby.

For now, Greg Eyerly, the city's flood-recovery czar, said the Federal Emergency Management Agency is only factoring in costs to replace the 40 parking spots at the old library.

In the figures released by Eyerly, the city would need to spend an additional $450,000 on the TrueNorth site to raise it against future flooding.

Those figures note that the Federal Emergency Management Agency has told the city that it will pay $3.675 million to help purchase a new site for the library and to demolish the buildings on it no matter which of the three sites the library is built on.

In a note to the City Council today, library director Pazicznyuk reports that FEMA's position is that they will fund the “least-cost alternative," which in terms of property cost is the Emerald Knights site.

The $3.675 million that FEMA now agrees to pay will cover all the expected cost to buy buildings on the Emerald Knights block and to tear down the buildings. In FEMA parlance, this leaves a zero “site-cost gap.”

The site-cost gap for the Gazette Communications block is $4.125 million, and for the TrueNorth block, $4.775 million, according to the city's figures.

Mayor Ron Corbett has said he wants the City Council to select among the three sites at its meeting this evening.

Cost, council members have said, is only one factor in the council's decision.

Two weeks ago, Corbett said the council, not FEMA, will pick the site for the new library.

Eyerly pointed out that Gazette Communications dropped its asking price from $7.5 million in recent days to $6.75 million.

He also noted that TrueNorth also altered its request a bit. It no longer will ask the city to reimburse TrueNorth for any amount to acquire a new TrueNorth site over $2 million.