Fairfield Library is moving, millions spent on upgrade
Millions will be invested in relocating a western Sydney library this year, while its existing site will be upgraded to help small businesses grow.
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Fairfield Council will spend millions opening a new library in the town centre and redevelop the existing library into an incubator for start-up businesses.
The library will be moved to 1-3 Hamilton Rd, Fairfield, after council purchased the property for $3.06m in 2014. A further $4 million will be spent upgrading both the new and existing library spaces.
“The Kenyon St (library) is too small to cater for current and future community needs,” Mayor Frank Carbone told the Advance.
“Council purchased the site at … Hamilton Rd to provide an additional 1000sq m of space in the short term, with the ability to expand as the need arises.”
Council plans to redevelop the facade of the two-storey building, and will renovate the ground floor into a library space. About ten people will work at the library, eight of them full-time.
The first floor will remain leased to the existing tenant, Warakirri College, but it could be tapped in the future as its popularity grows, Cr Carbone said.
The existing library, a smaller 660 sqm space on Fairfield’s Kenyon St, will be converted into a technology shared space intended to help launch start-up businesses.
Budding entrepreneurs will have access to work desks, seminar and meeting rooms and Wi-Fi, while there will be “additional flexible spaces to provide for the community’s needs”, Cr Carbone said.
“Council is committed to supporting local start-up businesses so they have the tools they need to grow, which provides more employment opportunities in our city,” Cr Carbone said.
Fairfield’s libraries — like those throughout NSW — have been undergoing a reimagining. Cabramatta’s Whitlam Library, the most popular of the council’s libraries, features The Workary, an incubator space for start-ups, and Studio 2166, a multimedia studio complete with a green screen.
Investing in digital resources and doubling down on workspaces has helped boost the popularity of libraries in Fairfield. Last year, Cr Carbone said attendance was up 19 per cent across all branches, and up by 49 per cent at Whitlam Library, since the changes have been introduced in recent years.
Upgrades to the libraries on Hamilton Rd and Kenyon St will commence this month, Cr Carbone said, and they should be completed by May 2020.