Correction: This version of the story corrects the property purchase price to $444,000 and clarifies that the early childhood reading initiatives will take place at the library's current location.

A larger public library serving the Monkey Junction area is one step closer to reality after New Hanover County officials closed Wednesday on the purchase of the 2.5-acre tract where the library will be built.

The new building will replace the county library’s current 6,900-square-foot branch at 5155 S. College Road, which opened in 1992, according to Mark Boyer, New Hanover’s interim public affairs director.

“Within the first year, the library was serving 43,000 patrons within a five-mile radius. The current population base in the five-mile radius is 73,000 and circulation has tripled to 330,000 items per year,” Boyer said Thursday in an email.

The new library property at 3802 S. College Road is about a mile and a half north of the present library location. The county’s capital improvement plan provides for building design in the 2015-16 fiscal year; county officials expect construction to take place in the 2017-18 fiscal year, Boyer said. At about 20,000 square feet, the new structure will address the need for more interior space and the site will offer more parking.  

“The board of commissioners authorized the purchase [of the property] during the January 5, 2015 meeting,” Boyer said, adding that funding came from the county’s fund balance. Cost for the site was $444,000, plus another $22,000 for environment assessments.

The newly approved county budget includes money for library staff to offer dedicated early childhood reading initiatives in the coming year at the current location, he added.

“Also included in this year’s budget are plans to move the Carolina Beach branch from the present site at 300 Cape Fear Blvd. to the Snow’s Cut Crossing Shopping Center,” Boyer said. “Usable space will almost double to 4,000 square feet and offer Pleasure Island patrons an expanded print collection and more access to technology resources for career development. We estimate a ‘soft’ opening sometime after Labor Day of this year.”

Boyer said the commissioners this week also gave official standardized names to the branch libraries. They are: New Hanover County Public Library Main Branch, New Hanover County Public Library Myrtle Grove Branch, New Hanover County Public Library Pleasure Island Branch and New Hanover County Public Library Northeast Branch.