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Law Library lease renewal continued after questions on space use and pending lawsuit
Summary
Committee continued a proposed five‑year lease extension for the Law Library at 1145 Market Street after members raised concerns about underused space, stored collections at Brooks Hall, and an unresolved lawsuit over adequacy of the library's space.
The committee considered a resolution to exercise a five‑year lease option to extend the Law Library's lease at 1145 Market Street for approximately 20,000 square feet with an initial annual base rent of about $1.2 million and 3% annual increases. Claudia Gorham, assistant director of real estate, said an appraisal set fair market rent at $65/sq ft and the negotiated figure is about $59/sq ft (roughly 90–91% of fair market value).
Supervisors asked how much of the leased floors were in active use; Gorham said portions of the second floor were not in use and that some rare books are held offsite (Brooks Hall). Supervisor Tang and others expressed concern about apparent unused shelving and asked the department head to appear at a future meeting with photos and usage data.
Deputy City Attorney John Gibner explained the city charter requires the city to provide law library space that is adequate and suitable but does not prescribe a specific square footage; he said the library filed suit when it was moved in 2013, the court ruled in the city’s favor on a preliminary injunction, and the suit has been dormant with no recent prosecutorial activity — the city has prompted the library’s counsel to dismiss so the case will not occupy court docket time.
Given outstanding questions about space utilization, litigation status and the absent department director, the committee continued the item to the call of the chair to return with additional information.
