Anchorage races a deadline to build a downtown library before a grant expires

Anchorage is working against the clock on a new downtown library, because the state money paying for much of it has an expiration date. A $2.5 million state grant to the Anchorage Library Foundation has to be spent by the end of 2026, and the city is lining up the pieces to get the branch built before it does.

One of those pieces comes before the Assembly on Tuesday: adding $500,000 in capacity to the city's on-call architectural contract, which supplies design work for the library and other projects, including renovations at the Loussac Library and the Dena'ina Convention Center. The amendment doesn't spend money on its own; it just keeps room on the contract for that work to be ordered as needed.

The library itself is further along. The Assembly has approved a roughly $1.26 million contract to renovate about 2,600 square feet of Old City Hall, with the work due by Dec. 18. Assistant Director Elizabeth Nikolai said in May she hopes the branch opens in early 2027.