BELOIT — Within a year, Beloit library patrons should have more room to stretch out, and the facility itself will have room to grow.

By April 2009, the library will move to a new, bigger location in the old Beloit Mall on Eclipse Boulevard. Construction is now under way at the site of the old J.C. Penney building in the Eclipse Center.

“The building’s been gutted,” Dennis Lennex, vice president of Roberts Construction Associates Inc., the Madison company overseeing construction, said Tuesday. “The addition and remodeling portion just started this week.”

After much planning, workers broke ground on the $8 million project July 9. The city has committed $7.7 million toward construction costs; the library plans to raise an additional $1.8 million.

The city also began construction in early July on Eclipse Boulevard, which, according to Lennex, will provide “much better access for the public to that area.” The new road will run between Riverside Drive and Park Avenue on the top of the bluff between ABC Supply Co. and the Eclipse Center.

“It was a year of solid work and detail,” Beloit Public Library Director Dan Zack said of project planning. “Right now, they’re in a demolition phase. They’re deconstructing before they start construction. The building is stripped down inside, and then they’re off to a good start.”

The city received the building in a trade with Beloit Properties Inc., which is affiliated with Hendricks Development Group.

“We negotiated a swap with the city of Beloit,” said Tim Weeden, director of government affairs for HDG, a subsidiary of ABC Supply Co.

The city received a new site for its library, while Beloit Properties gets $200,000 and the old library at 409 Pleasant St. downtown (see related story).

Zack, who took over as library director in January 2007, is familiar with such projects, having overseen a similar relocation in Elgin, Ill.

“It makes it easier because you know what to expect,” he said.

One thing library staff and patrons will enjoy at the new location is space, Zack added.

“We’re essentially doubling our effective space,” he said. “It’s really been a crunch trying to work in the office and the work rooms (in the current library).”

The current library uses 24,000 square feet, while the new facility will occupy 54,000 square feet, with room to expand.

“The space is there to expand, eventually,” Zack said. “(It’s) a huge benefit.”

While that does not mean the library will be able to update and expand its collections immediately, he hopes that, with additional space, funding will become available.

“Now we have the room; next, we need the budget,” Zack said, adding that the library’s collection is not keeping up with state standards.

The library will be able to expand its offerings, however, with nearly twice as many Internet-connected computer stations, a quiet reading room for periodicals, a 200-seat meeting room and a cafe area with tables and vending machines.

“It’ll have a separate children’s program room,” Zack said, as well as a children’s garden and “a young adult area, which we’ve never had before.”

The library’s 45 employees are excited about the new facility.

“Everybody’s anxious to get in this new library and take a look,” Zack said.

Meanwhile, he is working to finalize plans for the interior of the building with the Milwaukee firm Engberg Anderson. The city will receive bids for furniture and interior furnishings early this fall.

Zack expects the project to be completed on schedule in late March or early April.

“Everything seems to be going very smoothly, and we’re still on target, we think … we’re planning on opening in April of next year,” Zack said.

Once construction is complete, the library will close temporarily in order to relocate.

“We’re estimating (we’ll be closed) two weeks,” Zack said.

City officials, meanwhile, are looking forward to the finished product.

“We’re certainly very excited about it,” City Manager Larry Arft said, adding the new facility will “serve the community very well for decades to come.”

Zack agreed.

“The building’s going to work well from day one, and the building’s going to last for decades,” he said. “I think people are going to be pleasantly surprised when they see this new, modern library.”

Beloit College will get old building downtown

As Beloit Public Library administrators plan their move to a new location, Beloit College and Beloit Properties Inc. continue to weigh options for the old building downtown at 409 Pleasant St.

“We’re still in discussion with the college about what will happen at the current library site,” said Tim Weeden, director of government affairs for Hendricks Development Group, a subsidiary of ABC Supply Co., which also owns Beloit Properties. “The idea is for us — for (ABC owner) Diane Hendricks personally — to donate it to the college.”

The company gets the library site and $200,000 from the city in exchange for a new library site in the Eclipse Center.

Weeden said the donation to the college is in keeping with the Hendricks family’s past relationship with both the college and the community.

“They’ve always had a very close relationship with Beloit College,” Weeden said of Diane Hendricks and her husband, the late Ken Hendricks, who founded ABC Supply Co. and served as a Beloit College trustee. “They’ve always felt it was an import piece of the fabric of the community.”

The college has a general idea of how the building will be used, though a spokesman said plans are not final.

“It will be a center for music and dance education programs,” said Ron Nief, the college’s director of public affairs. “In addition, it will have facilities for our museums for outreach into the community.”

Nief said the building would contain dance and music studios, and possibly dance performance areas. A symphony-style concert hall is not in the works.

One thing that is certain, Weeden said, is that parking around the building will be updated.

“We intend to do some things with the parking lot that will make it more useable,” he said.

The company also will make updates to the building itself before turning it over to the college, hopefully in time for the 2010 spring semester.

“It’s pretty clear that nothing will happen to the exterior, but the interior will need some renovations,” Weeden said. “It’s a great, old building, and it can be very useful.”

Nief agreed.
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We’re creating a state-of-the-art space,” he said. “It’s going to be an extraordinary place for the community to use.”