CHARLOTTE, N.C. — The Charlotte Mecklenburg Library Foundation is going public with its campaign to raise $70 million to help pay for a new Main Library in uptown Charlotte, a project expected to serve as a centerpiece for the city’s North Tryon corridor.
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Leadership at the Charlotte Mecklenburg Library and the foundation disclosed details of the campaign and the new building at a fundraising event on Thursday evening. The new Main Library is proposed as a 115,000-square-foot building — with five floors above ground and one below — containing two outdoor terraces; a large lobby; vendor-operated cafe; “advanced technology capabilities,” such as two immersive theaters; meeting spaces; and a revamped Robinson-Spangler Carolina Room.
The total fundraising initiative is $135 million, including the $65 million that Mecklenburg County budgeted for the library in 2017. About $100 million — $50 million from the county and $50 million from the campaign — will be used for the new Main Library. The remaining $20 million to be raised by the foundation is for library support services, technology across the library system, annual operating support and an endowment; the rest of the $15 million from the county will help fund the relocation the Main Library’s back-of-house operations to North Tryon Street.
So far, $25 million of the $70 million goal in private funding has been raised, said Lee Keesler, CEO of the Charlotte Mecklenburg Library.
On Thursday, the Knight Foundation was revealed to be a lead donor, having committed $10 million to the campaign. The foundation has invested $1.5 million in the Charlotte Mecklenburg Library since 2002 and, Keesler said, has also provided “intellectual capacity” in helping plan the Main Library’s future.
A final price tag for the new Main Library, which has been touted as the catalyst project for the larger Seventh & Tryon redevelopment, has not been determined yet, Keesler said.
Read the full story and check out additional renderings of the property here.