Soon-Empty Sears Store Proposed for New Library

The San Diego Library Commission today will ask the City Council to examine the possibility of buying the cavernous Sears building on Cleveland Avenue and converting it into a much-needed central library that has been proposed for downtown.

“It’s an opportunity that should be explored,” Leo Sullivan, commission chairman, said Tuesday. “What we’re afraid of is that if the city doesn’t look into it, it might be sold to someone else.” The building is scheduled to be vacated March 15.

Sullivan estimated that it would cost the city $50 million to construct a 375,000-square-foot library proposed for downtown.

Sears and city officials said they do not know what the selling price of the building will be.

But Sullivan said that, if the Sears building can be renovated, “It would cost a lot less than if a new library was built . . . . I’m talking tens of millions of dollars.”

Most city officials agree that the city is in desperate need of a larger central library. The present library, on E Street between 8th and 9th avenues, has no public parking, has only 140,000 square feet of space and is unable to meet the city’s rapidly expanding needs. However, most council members, city officials and Centre City Development Corp. officers agree that the library should be downtown, while the Sears store is in Hillcrest.

Sullivan said there are other drawbacks to the commission’s proposed site, besides it being outside downtown, but he said those problems can be overcome. The Sears building, with 264,000 square feet, is more than 100,000 square feet smaller than the proposed library, but Sullivan quickly pointed out that it sits on 12 acres and has 1,100 parking spaces around it.

“It’s large enough, or close to it,” said Sullivan. “It’s accessible by freeways and public transportation, and it’s in an older, but up-and-coming neighborhood that can use the boost given by a library in the area.”

City planners have made a downtown site the main criterion for a new library. Backers of the downtown site see it as contributing to the redevelopment of the area. A downtown site, they argue, would benefit from people who patronize Horton Plaza and the Gaslamp Quarter.

In September, CCDC, the city’s nonprofit redevelopment agency, approved $230,000 to study construction of a high-rise at the Community Concourse that would include a library.

“The City Council has expressed an interest in the concourse site, but frankly, there is not much public support for this idea,” said Sullivan. Several civic groups have voiced opposition to the concourse site if it involves tearing down Golden Hall, and councilman and mayoral candidate Bill Cleator has called the concourse location “a poor spot.”

Alternatives discussed for a downtown library include putting it near the foot of Broadway, placing it on the San Diego City College campus, and tearing down the present library and rebuilding on that site.