Stakeholders stunned by mayor’s announcement that Montrose Library move is off the table

The Montrose Library’s long-planned move to the Montrose Collective on Westheimer Road — to which the city has already dedicated millions of dollars — is officially off the table.

The announcement from Mayor John Whitmire during a Tuesday morning press conference came as a surprise to many, including City Councilmember Abbie Kamin, whose District C includes Montrose; Steve Radom, the developer behind the Montrose Collective; and many library employees.

“The mayor made an announcement during the budget rollout, and that was the first I had heard of any of this,” Kamin said Thursday.

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Whitmire said he was concerned about spending “$11 million” to move the Montrose library from its current location in a historic church on Montrose Boulevard.

He said relocating the library to Westheimer would position it “very close to adult entertainment, on the third story of a commercial building, behind the hamburger building. When I saw it, I said, ‘Not on my watch.’”

Instead, he said Tuesday, he plans to find more than $10 million to rehabilitate the deteriorating Freed-Montrose branch on Montrose Boulevard .

A ripple of surprise

The sudden change was news to many.

“We are literally learning about this in real time,” Radom, managing principal of Radom Capital, said Thursday morning after a Houston Landing reporter told him the news.

Similarly, when asked for details about the plan by members of council Wednesday during a budget presentation, the library’s interim director, Cynthia Wilson, said she had scant details about Whitmire’s decision.

“I’m going to give you the answer I have right now: What we’re looking at is about $14.5 million to renovate the current Montrose location,” Wilson said Wednesday.

Some of the money is likely to come from other capital projects that have already been approved; in addition, the Montrose Tax Increment Reinvestment Zone has “expressed a desire to help us complete that project,” she said.

Beyond that, details are scarce, she noted.

“I don’t have an answer for you today, but I will have a conversation tomorrow about it, and every day following,” Wilson said.

This is not the first time announcements about the Montrose library branch have surprised stakeholders.

In March, the Houston Landing published an investigation into poor conditions at the historic building. One day later, Houston Public Library leaders announced the building’s permanent closure , which was later walked back to a temporary closure. At that time, Kamin noted that her office “had no prior notification (the) library would close” in a post on X , the social media site formerly known as Twitter.

“I think it is important that any mayoral administration work directly with the district councilmembers on matters pertaining to their districts,” Kamin said Thursday morning. “But beyond that, it’s about engaging and communicating and getting feedback from our residents, and the ability of government to ensure that people know what’s going on around them.”

A vote to relocate the Montrose library

The current Montrose Library branch is housed inside a former church building that has not seen extensive renovations since the late 1980s, when it became the city’s first two-story library, dubbed a “book sanctuary.”

In recent years, its infrastructure needs have escalated. The second floor is often taped off and inaccessible to library users. Its failing elevator, which Wilson said will cost about $11 million to fix, has led to concerns about compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Acts. Heating and cooling issues abound .

Because of the high price of repairs, city council voted in 2021 to spend $4.6 million to build a new library at the Montrose Collective, a mixed-use development on Westheimer.

In addition to a cash infusion, the relocation also required a land swap of about 8,000 square feet of municipal land on Westheimer in exchange for 12,000 square feet of retail space to be set aside for the library, which council approved in 2019 .

All told, millions of dollars have already been approved for the move — a fact that caught the attention of Councilmember Mario Castillo, who asked for further information Wednesday about the cost implications of backtracking on such a deal.

Kamin also raised concerns about such implications.

“We have contractual obligations as well. So if we were to back out of that, there’s a cost, I would assume,” she said Wednesday. “And that put the developer in a situation that would be our fault.”

Radom declined to comment on the specifics of the financial situation. And Wilson was unable to answer specific budgetary questions during the library’s budget presentation Wednesday.

She noted later that evening, in a statement to the Houston Landing, that “this is an ongoing conversation, and we will discuss the issues often to determine our next steps, as it is a top of mind issue.”

‘Knee-jerk’ reactions

This isn’t the first time Whitmire’s administration has deviated from the previous administration’s plans in a move that requires additional spending.

In February, Whitmire drew the ire of traffic safety advocates when he announced plans to remove a median on Houston Avenue just one month after it had been installed by the previous administration.

Removing that median cost $230,000, plus an additional $500,000 for asphalt resurfacing — more than seven times the cost of the original $100,000 project — before including the costs to repair the water and gas line breaks incurred during demolition.

“I’m not clear why we are going back and undoing work already done that has the potential for significant financial implications, when we as a city can be looking for new opportunities,” Kamin said Thursday. “Whether it’s a street project or a public asset like our library, they have to be informed decisions, not knee-jerk reactions.”