With $2.3M in pledges, Longboat Key's library vision comes closer to reality

Thanks to a quiet campaign of meeting with prospective donors, the town is more than halfway to the $3.5 million fundraising goal for enhancements to the Sarasota County library at the Town Center Green. 

The town’s deadline to raise $3.5 million for an enhanced version of a Sarasota County library is about one month away, and the town says it has $2.3 million in verbal pledges.

Town Manager Howard Tipton said the town is working to create forms to make those pledges written. 

The proposed enhancements include a larger meeting space for community events, as well as an outdoor terrace. 

The final push for the remaining $1.2 million will focus on the terrace, which Tipton emphasized is essential to connecting the library to the rest of the green. 

“It's going to focus on the outdoor portion of the community hall space, and why that's critical is because that's the part of the state that integrates with the rest of the park and connects that building to the park,” Tipton said. 

The connection between all parts of the Town Center Green, which also includes the Karon Family Pavilion, has been the long-term goal, said Tipton. The library and community hall, he added, will bring an aspect of lifelong learning and community connectedness to the green. 

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Not only will the library serve as a community hub, event space and educational resource center, but Tipton said the space would also prove useful in future storm events as an emergency resource center where the county could stage resources. 

“Resiliency has become a big part of what we think about with all of our projects. And this community space, this community hall, actually will serve as a resiliency center,” Tipton said.

Having Sarasota County on board to partner with the town is essential and provides a unique opportunity. 

“The fact that Sarasota County is willing to fund the operation and maintenance over time is a remarkable partnership,” Tipton said. “It’s a real benefit to this collaboration.”

The collaboration allows the town and the community to tailor the library space to better meet the community’s needs, hence the proposed enhancements. 

Sarasota County will take on the $11.1 million cost to construct the core library and the operating costs once finishing the building. 

Tipton said, without the county's partnership, constructing a standalone community center would be more costly than $3.5 million. 

The turbulent 2024 hurricane season diverted the community’s attention for the remainder of the year and the town was less focused on fundraising as it aided in recovery. This was one of the reasons the town requested a fundraising deadline extension from the county at the end of 2024. 

Over the past couple of months, however, town staff met with donors and secured the $2.3 million pledges as the community looked toward the future. 

“The momentum is there, the focus is there,” Tipton said. 

The town still needs $1.2 million to reach the goal, and the last month will be a full-court press to ensure meeting that goal, Tipton said. The strategy includes a boost in marketing and ensuring the community knows the deadline is near. 

In February 2024, the town of Longboat Key and the Sarasota County Libraries and Historical Resources Department held a community input session, which led to the idea of the enhanced version. 

Sarasota County will fund the $11.1 million core library construction and operating costs. However, the county put the town in charge of raising the $3.5 million needed for the expanded community hall and terrace. 

The expanded meeting space would hold about 200 people and cost $2 million. The terrace adds the other $1.5 million and connects the library to the rest of the Town Center Green. 

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With the enhancements, the library would be around 11,230 square feet. 

The fundraising campaign kicked off last summer, and the goal was to finish fundraising by the end of August 2024. But a slow start to fundraising followed by an active hurricane season led to the current extended deadline of the end of April. 

Tipton said the town will meet with county officials in May to discuss the next steps. 

For more information about the project, visit the town's dedicated “Complete the Green” page on its website. 

To make a pledge or for questions, contact Tipton at htipton@longboatkey/.org or call 941-316-8711.