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Institution wants to own buildings

Saturday, November 30, 2002

By Timothy McNulty, Post-Gazette Staff Writer

The city and the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh have agreements going back to 1890, when Andrew Carnegie agreed with the mayor and the Common and Select Councils of the city to put down $1 million for the main library in Oakland.

But in the 112 years since, the library has never signed a lease for that building or its 17 branches.

That could change starting next week.

The library is going to council Wednesday to ask for lease agreements that it says will help spur its planned renovations of the main library and branches. The leases will also include options for the library to buy the city-owned buildings for a nominal fee and sell some of the branch buildings if necessary.

The library floated a $15 million bond issue last month, supported by $1 million annually in Regional Asset District tax funds, to pay for renovations to the main library and four branches over the next few years. It is part of citywide improvements the library is planning this decade, costing an estimated $85 million.

While the library maintains, operates and insures all its buildings itself, the city owns them. The library wants building leases -- and ultimately, ownership -- to convince investors that it controls the buildings it is improving, Carnegie Library director Herb Elish said.

The library may also want to sell off branch buildings and replace them with new ones, Elish said, if evaluations of the existing branches show they would be too expensive to improve or they are in the wrong location. All 17 neighborhoods that currently have branch libraries would still have branch libraries, but in some cases -- say, if it is too expensive to air condition the whole building or make it accessible to the disabled -- the library could move to another building in the same neighborhood.

Any money from the sales would go back to the library. Should the library want to sell a branch location, the city would get the option of purchasing them first before they go on the open market.

"Most of them will get renovated and few we would consider moving from," Elish said. "We will study if they can be retained and renovated, or the problem could be locational. Our interest is in using proceeds for library purposes. We don't want to just abandon them and not get value for them."

According to the legislation being debated Wednesday, Andrew Carnegie created the Carnegie Library charitable trust in February 1890. In exchange for $1 million from Carnegie to construct the main library in Oakland, the city agreed to entrust the erection and management of the facility to the library trust and to pay $40,000 annually to support the library.

After accepting Carnegie's offer, the city purchased the current library land from Mary Schenley in 1891 and allowed the library to be built there. The library has been in Oakland ever since with few other legal changes.

Three different lease plans will go before council Wednesday: one for the main branch; another version for 15 of the separate branches; and a third for two branches that share building space with other entities, in Allegheny Square and Sheraden. The leases would have 29-year terms with 29-year renewals, General Services Director Dale Perrett said.

Council could take a preliminary vote Wednesday or hold off action in order to schedule a public hearing on the matter.