SILVERDALE – A new $4.5 million community theater could be built by 2018 just north of where the new Silverdale library is planned to be built near Bucklin Hill Bridge.
Kitsap Regional Library and Central Stage Theatre of County Kitsap announced last month that they would enter a formal partnership for a development plan at the corner of Bucklin Bridge Road and Blaine Avenue.
KRL Director Jill Jean was excited about the collaboration.
“I don’t often engage in hyperbole, and I don’t know if I believe in cosmic forces, but I totally believe that sometimes the stars do align and bring people together … to create extraordinary projects,” Jean said.
CSTOCK approached the library with the idea about two years ago. The groups realized not only did they like one another, but that they had similar goals.
“There is an energy to this partnership that we think is very special and unique,” Jean said.
The groups planned to meet in January to formalize a memorandum of understanding.
The library hopes to build a 10,000-square-foot new library with 40 parking spaces. The library did a feasibility study to see how the $7 million library might be funded.
CSTOCK President Brandon Myers said it made sense for CSTOCK to partner with the library.
Myers said Silverdale had an “identity crisis.”
“Growing up here, I always thought the heart of Silverdale was the mall,” but he wanted to bring culture and the arts front-and-center.
The Silverdale Community Center, which has been CSTOCK’s home until recently, has been deemed unsafe and will be torn down by February. CSTOCK is now operating out of Central Kitsap Middle School.
Myers said he’d like to ensure that CSTOCK finds a permanent home and expands on what the group has been doing for the past 30 years. A sustainable business model was also needed, he said.
Myers envisioned a 200-seat theater with classroom space, a commercial kitchen and parking.
Myers said it could cost $800,000 for the land for the theater, plus $3.3 million for construction and $400,000 for development. That would bring total theater costs to $4.5 million. They hope to have the building constructed by 2018. CSTOCK has raised $283,000 so far.
New Silverdale library plans moving forward
“In April of this past year, we’ve had very positive results shared with our board of trustees and we were able to move forward to put money down on the property,” Jean said.
During the “quiet phase” of their capital campaign, the library spoke with a person with ties to the art community on Bainbridge Island.
“We wanted to talk about the possibility of art in a new Silverdale library. And the person we spoke to was so interested in the project that they said, ‘Come back with a proposal. I am interested in more than just the art. I want to talk to you about the whole project.'”
“Needless to say, we were very excited about this. Especially for what I believe is a historic gesture: To have someone from Bainbridge Island support a project that is entirely outside of that area.”
“This project truly resonated with this donor.”
Jean said that on Nov. 25 the library was able to take possession of the new property. KRL plans to sell the current Silverdale library building eventually.
“This has been 40 years in the making … but we are feeling truly pleased with where we are at.”
KRL Foundation Director Jaime Forsyth was also pleased with plans for what she called a “wonderful, iconic library” in the center of Silverdale.
Forsyth said the project resonated with people. It could have high ceilings, lots of light, meeting space and “maker spaces” where people could create things instead of only consuming information.
“Everybody knows Silverdale is this vital, thriving, expanding center of retail. But yet there isn’t that place that’s the iconic community place. A lot of people look at libraries as representing a community’s investment in itself. Right now, the (current library) building in Silverdale does not match the thriving vitality of the rest of the community.”
Forsyth said such a library is part of what attracts families to an area.
Early plans for the library called for a small coffee shop to be inside, but Forsyth said that was no longer likely.
“We realized that the community needs more meeting space more than it needs coffee. Well, some people might argue,” she said. There are other coffee shops in the surrounding area.
A possible plan for a new CSTOCK theater.
A conceptual floor plan for a new Silverdale library shows a community room, adult and childrens book collections, a lobby, a program area, a maker space, computer space, a study room and staff area.
