A two-story office building will be donated to the City and repurposed as a new West Loop branch library under a plan introduced by Mayor Rahm Emanuel and approved today by City Council.

Neighborhood-based developer Sterling Bay will donate the 11,600-square-foot structure at 118-22 N. Aberdeen St. and work with the Chicago Public Library (CPL) to design and build the new branch to include adult and children’s materials, meeting and computer rooms on the first level and regional offices on the second floor.

The $2.3 million project will be supported with $976,000 in Neighborhood Opportunity Bonus fund assistance and private donations. When completed in 2019, the building will join the City’s other libraries in providing free after-school tutoring and homework assistance within a high quality, modern branch environment.

The Neighborhood Opportunity Bonus provides increased height and density allowances for downtown construction projects in exchange for voluntary developer payments. Ten percent of bonus contributions are allocated to support improvements within one mile of the development site, 80 percent is allocated for grants in underserved commercial corridors on the West, Southwest and South sides, and the remainder is allocated to support for designated City landmarks.

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