Ebooks, Netflix, and Library Building Projects (Part 25, Kanawha County Public Library)

Library project would create 400 construction jobs, study says. (Charleston Gazette, 5/10/2011)

Excerpt:   A proposed $47 million project to build a new Kanawha County Public Library and update branches in several local communities will create more than 400 construction jobs and have an economic impact of about $18 million on the county, a study conducted by Marshall University concludes.

Library officials want to build a new main library in Charleston, build a new branch in Marmet and renovate branches in St. Albans, Dunbar, Cross Lanes and Sissonville.

The biggest part of the project is to build a new main library branch on the corner of Leon Sullivan Way and Lee Street across from the Clay Center on about 213,000 square feet of land now occupied by a bank and the former site of General Seafood.  {?  In West Virginia?}

The cost of the new main branch alone is estimated at about $27 million, plus another $10 million for land acquisition.

Library officials asked the Center for Business and Economic Research at Marshall University to conduct a study to estimate the new library's impact on the county.