CLEARWATER - The Beach Branch of the Clearwater Library System received a new lease on life during Monday's City Council meeting, but with a condition.
The library's beach branch has existed month-to-month at its Pelican Walk home since its lease expired last October. Negotiations stalled because Pelican Walk's owner, Loius Anastasopoulos, was asking for more rent for the Library's prime first floor location than the City was willing to pay. He offered the City a second floor location at a reduced rate, but City engineers found that the building was not designed to support the weight of book stacks.
Anastasopoulos has now agreed to strengthen the second floor retail space, formerly a Burger King, to support the 125 pounds per square foot required by City code for book stacks. But to earn an adequate return on his investment in the structure, he has required a 5-year lease. The proposed annual rent for the 3,750 square foot storefront is $58,000, versus the $56,100 for the library's 3,300 square foot first floor location.
John Szabo, Clearwater's Library Director, said that Anastasopoulos claimed that the building would be ready within three weeks to one month of lease approval, but City Engineer Mike Quillen said that "3 weeks seems awfully short" considering the amount of work required, and "a matter of months would seen much more realistic."
City Attorney Pam Akin then joined the discussion, suggesting that Council approval of the lease be contingent on being able to occupy it by a set date. After some deliberation, the Council approved the proposed lease, contingent upon the completion of the required structural improvements within five months.
Contacted the next day about the timing of construction, Anastasopoulos claimed "we have that all lined up." He expects to start construction in September, and anticipates that the project will take about one month. He also said that the operation of the Beach Gameland, located directly below the new library storefront, might be disrupted for "a couple of weeks" during construction.
As part of their approval, the Council also authorized a one-time expenditure of $50,500 for improvements to the new space. $12,500 of that amount will come from the Library operating budget, and the remaining $38,000 will be taken from General Fund retained earnings.