Brower Park Library Set For Move To Brooklyn Children's Museum

CROWN HEIGHTS, BROOKLYN — The Brower Park Library on St. Marks Avenue has the funds necessary to move a few blocks away into a new space at the Brooklyn Children's Museum, a library official said.

Community Board 8 on Monday circulated a notice from Naila Rosario, the government relations and advocacy manager at Brooklyn Public Library, to its mailing list saying the recently passed city budget for fiscal year 2018 included the $3.3 million needed to relocate the library.

The proposal has been the subject of several community meetings, where residents expressed concern about the branch of the Brooklyn Public Library moving into a museum space.

"By collaborating with the Brooklyn Children’s Museum to house a full-service library within their walls, we will build an educational hub where children and Brooklynites of all ages can seamlessly access the resources of both institutions," BPL spokeswoman Camonghne Felix told Patch. "We are excited to work closely with the Crown Heights community to bring this innovative new cultural resource to fruition."

The library currently sits inside a 6,000-or-so-square-foot building on St. Marks Avenue between New York and Nostrand avenues. That building is privately owned and leased by the BPL to hold the branch.

It is also in dire need of repairs, including a new roof and HVAC system, that BPL says would cost about $5.6 million. And buying the property from the current landlord would cost an extra $3 million.

Officials have said rent in the new space inside the children's museum, on St. Marks and Brooklyn avenues, will be about the same, and the space will be slightly larger.

"Over the next year, the Library and the Museum will work together to design a space that can help our community grow and thrive through literacy, arts and culture," Rosario wrote.

"During this process, we will hold several meetings to gather feedback from residents to ensure that community needs are met in the space. We look forward to working with the neighborhood to build a wonderful resource for everyone."

The notice sent out by the community board said that the library will continue to operate on St. Marks Avenue until the new space is ready, likely around summer of 2019.

"Our goal is for there to be no significant disruption of service to either the Library or the Museum during this time," Rosario said.

Patch has reached out to BPL for more information, and we'll update this post once we hear back.

The library also provided the following fact sheet to the community board:

Image via Google Streetview