Two Brooklyn library branches to hit the market

Officials at the Brooklyn Public Library plan to sell two libraries — one in Brooklyn Heights and the other in Boerum Hill, the New York Daily News reported. The properties are reportedly in need of repairs, which the library system is unable to pay.

Plans for the Brooklyn Heights location on Cadman Plaza West include selling the property to a developer, keeping the library at the ground-level space and developing residences above. As for the Boerum Hill Pacific branch, the building will be sold and the library relocated to a planned building in Brooklyn’s Cultural District in downtown Brooklyn.

The plan requires City Council approval, but broken down, if the Brooklyn Heights branch trades hands, then the library will shrink its presence from 60,000 square feet to 16,000 square feet. The Business & Career Library, located next door, would be relocated to The Grand Army Plaza central branch. And in Boerum Hill, the library would keep its doors open until the new property, whose address is not mentioned, is completed in 2016.

This plan has angered library patrons, who say they are worried that the locations will stay closed for years. [NYDN] —Zachary Kussin

CORRECTION AND CLARIFICATION: Though the Daily News said the Brooklyn Heights library will downsize from 60,000 square feet to 16,000, a spokesperson said that 13,000 of the building, which measures 60,000 square feet, currently operates as the library. This new branch will be at least 15,000 square feet. The spokesperson clarified that the new Boerum Hill location will be in BAM South and added that the patrons’ notion of libraries being closed for long periods is not true, as the library would not close without having a temporary space in place.