City owns most of future library property

The city of Cedar Rapids reports that it now owns most of  the property on which it will build the city's new library at 421 Fourth Ave. SE.

The purchase of most of the 400 block of Fourth Avenue SE from previous owner, TrueNorth Companies Inc., cost $7.5 million, the same amount of money that TrueNorth has said it expects to spend to renovate and move to the site of the city's flood-damaged, former library on First Street SE.

TueNorth is expected to make the move in October 2011, the city said on Wednesday, and until then, the company will pay the city $10,000 a month to stay in the Fourth Avenue SE building.

The city still needs to buy a small piece of the block, the cost of which the city has said will be in the $200,000 range.

The announcement of the TrueNorth property closing comes a day before the city's library board plans to reveal what the new library will look like. The board meets at 4 p.m. Thursday at the library facility at Westdale Mall.

The City Council last night voted to uses $4 million in the city's local-option sales tax revenue to help with the site purchase for the library. The council picked the TrueNorth site last February, but the site cost about $4 million more than the least-cost option.

The council now has decided to build its new Central Fire Station on what had been the least-cost option for the library, the 700 block between First and Second avenues SE that formerly housed the Emerald Knights Drum and Bugle Corps.