Wasilla has signed a purchase agreement to pay $1.5 million for the indoor shopping center in the heart of downtown, Public Works Director Archie Giddings said. The city will convert the building from its current retail configuration into a library 2.5 times larger than the current building.
The money for the project will come entirely from the city’s coffers, but Giddings said it was determined the city could pay for the building without drawing its reserve fund below the amount legally required.
  
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“When somebody calls up and says, ‘Hey, I have this building. Do you want to buy it?’ (and) at such a good price, you don’t want to wait around while someone else snatches it up from underneath you,” Harris said.
The asking price is $500,000 below the building’s assessed value, Giddings said. The owners, Harold and June DeArmoun, offered the city a reduced price with conditions that the entire building be used as a public library and Meta Rose remains somewhere in the name, Giddings said.
Even with the $400,000 the city is slating for retrofitting, the price is still below what the building is actually worth, Giddings said, as well as being well below what new construction would have cost.
Councilwoman Nancy Hall said the council unanimously voted to go ahead with the contract.
“The existing library is way too small,” Hall said. “The land available to build a new building isn’t exactly in the downtown core area. The (Meta Rose) building is there. It’s in the downtown core. It definitely keeps people coming. And it has parking.”
Committee feels snubbed
That the library’s current building is insufficient is nothing new. A steering committee composed of three city officials and four local residents was created in 2008 to examine the library’s challenges and potential solutions.
The language of the ordinance creating the committee cited its expressed purpose as “gathering information and making recommendations to the City Council concerning the construction or acquisition of a building to house the city library and other cultural services.”
Yet, said committee member Annette Andres, the steering committee was never contacted about any plans regarding the Meta Rose. Members were not asked their opinions and never had a chance to discuss it, she said.
“We still have not been formally informed,” Andres said.
Even before the committee was created, Andres said community members have spent years gathering information, applying for grants and determining Wasilla’s needs. The Friends of the Wasilla Library have been working to this end for eight years. And yet, she said, that group did not receive word of the city’s plan until Monday.
Andres said other organizations have been involved with efforts to get a new building for the library. Now, not only does this latest development potentially jeopardize the relationship with the Rasmuson Foundation and future grants through that charitable group, it also leaves Valley Performing Arts and its plans for a joint library/theather facility out of the picture, she said.
“To not even have been asked, ‘Do you think this would be a good purpose for this building?’ It borders not only on insult and the lack of due diligence seeming to be not wise, but it also doesn’t bode well for the level of maturity of our city nor the seriousness with which we should be taking into account these decisions,” Andres said.
Giddings, who is one of the city’s representatives on the library steering committee, said the time frame was too condensed to bring the purchase up to the committee. The $500,000-off deal was only good through the end of this year, he said, as capital gains taxes are set to increase in 2010 and the DeArmouns wanted to sell before then.
That’s little consolation for Jeanne Troshynski, the chairwoman of the library steering committee and president of the Friends of the Wasilla Library.
“I heard a rumor (of the deal) on Saturday and spent the weekend trying to track it down. But I didn’t know for sure until I heard Monday on the news,” Troshynski said. “I am amazed that the city council — who I speak to every month — and the mayor would not have the courtesy to let anyone on the steering committee know.”
What’s more, Troshynski said, the Meta Rose Square is 21,000 square feet, much smaller than the 37,000 square feet the committee determined a new library should be to meet the needs of the community.
“It’s frustrating,” she said. “We worked with a consultant. We’ve really tried to be diligent making sure we’ve looked at what the community needs. Now, it’s all for naught.”
Troshynski said the steering committee was looking at 2013 as its goal for a new library. While the municipal bond market may be tough now, she said the city would not need to start looking for serious funding until after the economy recovered. The committee is also lobbying to the Alaska Legislature to put money behind its commitment to fund half of the cost of building a new library.
“This was not going to be a sales tax funded project,” she said.
With this in mind, she said she would understand if the Meta Rose was perhaps an interim location while a new building was completed. However, all indications, she said, are that the city will not begin to move the library until 2011.
Tenants given more
consideration
What she is referring to is the promise the city has made to the current tenants for more than a year find new locations.
“We are going to give them until the end of next Christmas until we start making the transition,” Giddings said.
While the temporary stay on eviction is nice, the tenants of Wasilla’s only indoor shopping mall said they were shocked by the news.
“I was sort of blindsided, or shocked,” said Flowers by Louise owner Louis Davis. “We all knew the DeArmouns had discussed selling it before, but we all assumed it would be to somebody else who would keep it as retail space.”
Davis has been at the Meta Rose for more than 20 years and attributes her success to the foot traffic of the location and spill-over from other businesses in the center. Now, faced with the prospect of moving, Davis is uncertain about where she goes from here.
“I don’t have a clue,” she said. “Obviously, I’ve got to do some thinking about it and praying about it. Hopefully, God will smack me on the head trying to tell me something.”
All I Saw Cookware has been at the Meta Rose since it was constructed, owner David Nyberg said. Like Davis, Nyberg said being in the only “quasi-mall” in Wasilla has allowed him to be successful. He is not pleased with the prospect of getting kicked out, but understands the reasoning and rights of the owners.
“When we are forced to leave, we will either find a new place or do other things,” he said. “We haven’t made any decisions. We are just going to take it calm and get though this Christmas. The first of the year, we will start to think about what we’re going to do.”
The money to buy the building still has to go through the city’s appropriation process, Giddings said. There will be an ordinance introduced at the next city council meeting on Monday, and a public hearing will follow.
Contact Todd L. Disher at todd.disher@frontiersman.com or 352-2252.
Comments
46 comment(s)spellcheque wrote on Dec 1, 2009 2:51 PM:
Learn your facts wrote on Nov 30, 2009 4:34 PM:
Boots wrote on Nov 27, 2009 6:56 PM:
One of the problem now is PARKING! Count the slots at Meta Rose we would not be gaining MUCH more parking. I lived here a long time the Meta Rose Bldg to be turned in to a Library will COST LOTS OF MONEY.
The only ones gaining by this
purchase is the DeAmouran's to add to their retirement fund. I vote NO! "
2good2Btrue wrote on Nov 26, 2009 2:04 PM:
John Weis wrote on Nov 26, 2009 7:34 AM:
Slow Down wrote on Nov 25, 2009 12:17 PM:
there will be wrote on Nov 23, 2009 1:19 PM:
I do not see why it was in executive session, this should ALL be ON THE RECORD "
There will be wrote on Nov 22, 2009 10:22 PM:
Julie M wrote on Nov 22, 2009 3:24 PM:
Unspoken words wrote on Nov 22, 2009 1:24 PM:
Guest wrote on Nov 22, 2009 12:21 AM:
" I just hope you've all been attending the COW council meetings, if not, than shame on you. You would have known this was coming. "
I have attended the COW and NO it was not comming.......not META ROSE.... "
Citizen of Wasilla wrote on Nov 22, 2009 12:18 AM:
Librarian Mom wrote on Nov 21, 2009 6:44 PM:
Unspeakable wrote on Nov 20, 2009 9:39 PM:
JustMe wrote on Nov 20, 2009 8:31 PM:
lee wrote on Nov 20, 2009 5:52 PM:
Pat wrote on Nov 20, 2009 7:27 AM:
ValleyMessenger wrote on Nov 20, 2009 2:17 AM:
Juliet delaney wrote on Nov 20, 2009 1:15 AM:
city resident wrote on Nov 19, 2009 7:30 PM:
Dad can now cross THAT issue off his need to do list and Mom did't even have to get involved. "
Poor VPA wrote on Nov 19, 2009 7:23 PM:
Greased Rails wrote on Nov 19, 2009 5:20 PM:
How do we know what else is out there. Probably could of bought carrs for that and we could of gotten a new food store. It just tastes wrong to move so fast with little public input. Lots of eyes are better that just the mayors one?
Meta Rose would make a better City hall than a library!
Hey did any Contractor run this thru planning. It would get choked in public hearings. "
Parking..Parking..where have you been wrote on Nov 19, 2009 12:45 PM:
Agree w curious wrote on Nov 19, 2009 11:02 AM:
SET wrote on Nov 19, 2009 10:57 AM:
Watch out. Somewhere in the near future the city will need more money to keep up with expenses and start talking about raising the sale tax. Probably for the upkeep on the expensive library property and the new employees it will need to maintain the new building. Where was the input from the people on this purchase??????? Hear it citizens? Tick...Tick....Tick. The sound of your money being thrown away. "
fishhook wrote on Nov 19, 2009 8:25 AM:
all for it wrote on Nov 19, 2009 7:10 AM:
Tycho wrote on Nov 19, 2009 7:09 AM:
wow wrote on Nov 19, 2009 7:08 AM:
It might be more feasible to purchase property in the core area and build a new building. "
Congratulations wrote on Nov 18, 2009 6:28 PM:
LIFELONG resident. wrote on Nov 18, 2009 1:19 PM:
Proverbs 22:7 "
jmer wrote on Nov 18, 2009 1:14 PM:
just a mom wrote on Nov 18, 2009 11:37 AM:
John Harkey wrote on Nov 18, 2009 10:47 AM:
Sweethear Deal wrote on Nov 18, 2009 10:33 AM:
curious wrote on Nov 18, 2009 10:27 AM:
EML wrote on Nov 18, 2009 10:06 AM:
Great Move for the Library wrote on Nov 18, 2009 9:22 AM:
allisaw wrote on Nov 18, 2009 9:17 AM:
Great Move wrote on Nov 18, 2009 7:01 AM:
Valley Library Patron wrote on Nov 17, 2009 10:59 PM:
offsoapstone wrote on Nov 17, 2009 10:22 PM:
molly wrote on Nov 17, 2009 9:14 PM:
The city should not be tempted to the "Buy Now" gimmick.
Something sounds shady in this deal. "
Executive session wrote on Nov 17, 2009 9:04 PM:
Oops wrote on Nov 17, 2009 8:29 PM:
Hmmm wrote on Nov 17, 2009 7:04 PM: