Ground broken on OneNorth in Bayside, the new home for the North Shore Library
After years of planning, construction is now underway for the five-story building featuring the new North Shore Library and nearly 100 multifamily apartment units in Bayside.
Project leaders broke ground amongst more than 100 bystanders at the corner of Port Washington and Brown Deer roads on May 10. Under the current plan, construction of the library, which serves Bayside, Fox Point, Glendale and River Hills, will take between 18 and 24 months with an estimated completion around spring 2025.
"We're committed to building this in a way that the community would be very proud of," said developer Bill La Macchia. "We will get this library built."
Fundraising is still needed to complete the North Shore Library project
Despite the groundbreaking, project leaders still need to fundraise millions of dollars to ensure the project is completed. Construction of the building is being paid for by donors; no tax dollars are being used to build the library.
As of May, the project has raised about 54% of its funding goal, or about $7.46 million. Donations include a $4.8 million donation from Bayside Development Partners, II LLC, a $1 million donation from the Sharon La Macchia Family, a $500,000 Federal Government Appropriation and nearly $300,000 in community donations, among others.
The North Shore Library still needs to raise about $6.3 million dollars by the end of 2023 to meet its goal and complete the project.
Bayside Village President Eido Walny said he's confident they'll reach their goal with various donor requests in progress. "Failure isn't an option," he said, although if the funding goal isn't reached, he said they might have to push back the construction timeline.
One protester, Gerry, who didn't give his last name, opposed the funding of the project for lacking transparency at the groundbreaking.
New library will replace former building with accessibility issues
Many areas of the current library at 6800 North Port Washington Road in Glendale are not ADA accessible, including the emergency exits, said library director Rhonda Gould. "We're maxed out at every area and we often have to make decisions about programming priorities for our one community room."
The new library will address those concerns, and also continue to serve residents, said Gould. The current library welcomes 6,500 visitors every month. There are currently 7,895 borrowers who checked out more than 180,000 items last year.
Multiple library employees and board members were in attendance at the groundbreaking. Anne Harrington, who's worked in circulation for the past six years, said she's been waiting for a new library for 15 years. "It's a big deal for us."
Contact Alex Groth at agroth@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter at @grothalexandria.
Our subscribers make this reporting possible. Please consider supporting local journalism by subscribing to the Journal Sentinel at jsonline.com/deal.
DOWNLOAD THE APP: Get the latest news, sports and more
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Developers break ground for North Shore Library project in Bayside
