Joplin council considering offers on library building
Mar. 9—Offers for the former Joplin Public Library building are being considered by the Joplin City Council.
City Attorney Peter Edwards said the city received several offers to purchase the building at 302 S. Main St. when it was advertised for sale.
Those offers are being evaluated by the council. Asked when a decision might be made, he said, "I think best-case scenario, the council will make a decision to accept/reject offers the first part of April."
Mayor Doug Lawson said several people expressed interest in the building.
"We don't want to give the building away, but we want something that will benefit the city and the downtown," he said.
The city placed notifications in October that it would be taking proposals. Those proposals were to include an offer price, a description of intended use, a financial plan, background on similar projects carried out by the bidder, and a projection of the economic impact the intended project would be expected to generate.
Bidders were asked to participate in interviews with the City Council about what would be done with the building.
Assistant City Manager Tony Robyn at that time said city officials decided to market the building rather than simply running ads to sell it. He said the request for proposals was sent out to lists of developers maintained by both city sources and by the Joplin Area Chamber of Commerce.
"We think it's an important building in downtown, and we want to handle it a little differently," Robyn said.
The vacant one-block property that offers 35,000 square feet of space and 54 parking spaces could be suitable for a number of uses, Robyn had said.
Lori Haun, executive director of the Downtown Joplin Alliance, said the vacant building leaves a gap in the redeveloping downtown hub.
"That block really needs something to bring energy and life, and connect the 100 and 200 blocks with those to the south. Some ideas might be a food hall, grocery store, or several combined businesses with Main Street facing retail or food offerings," she said. "Maybe someone could do a rooftop bar on it. The outdoor green space brings lots of opportunity for outdoor dining activity."
The future of the building has been in question since the library's move in 2017 into a new building at 1901 E. 20th St. It was largely funded by a federal grant as a disaster recovery stimulus project after the 2011 tornado.
The library's board of trustees wanted a new building, citing a need for more space and updated wiring for electronic services.
During the tornado recovery effort, the downtown library site had been offered to the Kansas City University as a site for the medical school, which was later built at 2901 St. John's Blvd. within the city's medical district, a site donated by Mercy Hospital.
In 2018, officials with the city of Joplin in tandem with the Joplin Area Chamber of Commerce, Missouri Southern State University and the Joplin School District announced a project to use the building as a business, technology and education hub called Project Launchpad.
A $10 million bond issue to fund remodeling for that purpose was to be on the ballot along with a $30 million proposal to expand and remodel the now-closed city-owned Memorial Hall building, but it was pulled off the ballot in November 2021 by city officials. They said it would be difficult to move forward on the project because the former chamber president, who led the effort, had left Joplin for a new job.
The Main Street building was constructed in 1980 to move library operations from the 1902 Carnegie Library at Ninth Street and Wall Avenue.
