LITTLE TOKYO : Library to Check In to New, Bigger Home

City officials are expected to finalize by Wednesday a 10-year lease for the Little Tokyo Branch Library’s new home on the ground floor of the Neptune Building on 3rd Street.

“The location is very prominent and accessible,” said Carmen Martinez, director of library branches for Los Angeles. “We hope to move in in August.”

The Los Angeles City Council in March approved spending $56,000 a year for the 5,000-square-foot space, ending the branch library’s nearly two-year search to relocate.

Since the branch opened in April, 1989, Little Tokyo library officials have been working out of a smaller, 2,400-square-foot room in the Centenary United Methodist Church at 948 E. 2nd St.

The branch, which circulated 131,739 materials last year, has outgrown its rented space and needs more room for its 21,000-book collection.

A proposal to move into the historic Union Church of Los Angeles on San Pedro Street never checked out, so the city Board of Library Commissioners settled on the Neptune Building at 701 E. 3rd St.

Built in the early 1920s, the four-story concrete structure was named after its original owner, the Neptune Water Meter Co., said Hoss MacVaugh, vice president of Cutting/MacVaugh Real Estate Services. Cutting/MacVaugh now manages the building for Oakwood Third Street Assn., a partnership of investors.

The 50,000-square-foot building, however, is probably more recognized for its two bulging statues of the Greek god Neptune.

As part of the lease agreement, MacVaugh said his firm will spend an estimated $125,000 for such tenant improvements as wire and cable installations, carpeting and plumbing.

The new branch will feature a communications room and administrative offices for four full-time and five part-time staff. Most of the 5,000-square-foot space will be devoted to library users, according to a drawing plan.

Library branch director Martinez doesn’t anticipate any problems with the August move of the branch’s mostly Japanese-language volumes.

“We do this all the time,” Martinez said.

“We just mark the boxes according to the (book) numbers. . . . There’s a system we have, and we get them back on the shelf real quick.”

Library supporters are eager to see their dream of an expanded Little Tokyo Branch come true.

“We’re just thrilled now that we are going to larger quarters,” said Janet Minami, president of Friends of Little Tokyo Branch Library. “But it’s been a long time.”

The Little Tokyo library is one of 63 branches run by the city. Library officials also expect to open a new location for the city’s Echo Park branch later this year.