OCEANSIDE — City leaders have approved the $3 million purchase of a vacant building at the corner of Mission Avenue and Ditmar Street that will become the newest space for the Friends of the Oceanside Public Library bookstore as well as the READS Learning Center.
The 10,000-square-foot building at 615 Mission Avenue includes a ground level and a basement, and is owned by Larry and Cathleen Hatter. Larry Hatter is a longtime Oceanside resident who has been involved in several local organizations, including the Oceanside Library Board of Directors and the Friends of the Oceanside Public Library.
Following the Hatters’ years of involvement with the library, the Hatter Family Trust offered the city the opportunity to buy the building to continue supporting the library’s programs.
The City Council unanimously approved a purchase agreement for the property on Wednesday, and also accepted a grant deed for the building to be used for library purposes for the next 55 years.
“I do want to thank the Hatter family for doing this. It’s a big deal. Thank you,” said City Councilmember Rick Robinson.
Oceanside leaders also approved a property use agreement with the Friends of the Oceanside Public Library, which will lease around 7,000 square feet of the building for $3,000 a month. They also approved a memorandum of understanding with the Oceanside Public Library Foundation for a one-time donation of $500,000 to go toward the property.
The Friends will use a portion of the ground floor for their library bookstore and the basement for book sorting, online sales, and storage.
Christopher Wilson, president of the Friends, said the organization regularly donates $100,000 annually to support library programs in the city. This is made possible largely by revenue from the used-bookstore and online book sales.
“Especially post-COVID, the two biggest revenues are online sales and the physical bookstore in the downtown area,” Wilson said. “This would allow us to consolidate both of those into one building. It would give us additional square footage to potentially expand those revenue lines, which in turn means more money coming into the library to support programs.”
The Friends currently operate three bookstores — Jane and Evie’s Used Books at 323 N. Coast Highway, one inside the Civic Center Library, and another at the Mission Branch Library. They also sell books at the Thursday Oceanside Farmers Market.
Their bookstore inside the new 615 Mission building will replace their location at Jane and Evie’s. Joe McClusky, a Friends volunteer of more than 18 years, said they are looking forward to moving into the new, larger space.
“I think it’s a great move, because we’ll have all of our facilities at one spot,” said McClusky, 83.
The rest of the building’s ground floor will be used by the city for the READS Learning Center, which supports literacy skills for Oceanside adults, including reading, writing, and speaking.
The center will be relocated to 615 Mission Ave from its current location at 804 Pier View Way, which the city currently rents for around $8,000 a month.
City Councilmember Jimmy Figueroa said the move will be very beneficial to the learning center.
“Everything that they’re offering to our community, the services they offer in that space, they’ve made so welcoming. It’s exciting to see what the potential could be for an even larger space,” Figueroa said.
Improvements to the 615 Mission building will include a demising wall to separate the library bookstore from the learning center space. The city will also install an elevator to go between the ground floor and the basement.
The cost of building improvements, repairs, and operations for the new space is just over $1 million. The city is contributing $542,640, and the Oceanside Public Library Foundation is also contributing $500,000 toward these costs.
Escrow will open within seven days of the council’s approval, followed by a due diligence period of 76 days. Escrow is expected to close by June 15, said city Real Estate Manager Vicki Gutierrez.
While the building has most recently served as an office for a financial firm, Mayor Esther Sanchez said she recalls when it operated as Scandia Bakery and Fountain. She would take accordion lessons across the street when she was around 10 years old, she said.
“For some reason, I loved that building,” Sanchez said. “To think that that is gonna become part of the City of Oceanside and the library is just really, really, so darn cool and exciting.”
