Riverside city officials made a pitch to have a new Dayton Metro Library branch built in the city as part of the library’s upcoming $187-million system-wide building project.

Representatives from the city made a 30-minute presentation to the Dayton Metro Library Board of Trustees on Wednesday, proposing the Spin Kemp Shopping Center as a potential site for a branch.

A Riverside/East Dayton branch is one of four new urban branches planned.

The shopping center — which has been around since the mid-1950s — is located at the southwest corner of Burkhardt Road and Spinning Road.

“Age will factor into the decision and whether we want to reuse an existing facility,” said Tim Kambitsch, executive director of the Dayton Metro Library. “There are a lot positive attributes — being on a bus line, the grocery store (Kroger) across the street, the proximity to schools.

“Libraries are unique buildings,” he added. “We want these libraries to last for 50 years, 75 years. We’re not looking to do some temporary facilities. The residents of this county gave us a wonderful gift, and we’re going to make sure we have the best libraries possible.”

The new 20,000-square foot library would replace the Burkhardt branch in Dayton. The preliminary cost for the new branch is $4.2 million.

Of the shopping center’s 52,000 square feet, 30,000 of it is unoccupied contiguous space. The city has proposed that the property — which sits on 4.02 acres — could be repurposed or demolished to meet the library’s needs.

The shopping center is occupied by Family Dollar, McGuffy’s House of Rock and other tenants. The property is up for sheriff’s sale, according to Bob Murray, Riverside’s economic development director.

The city and library could engage in a joint project, he said. Murray said the city doesn’t want to see those tenants leave, so any repurposing would involve keeping them there. Demolishing a portion of the site also is an option, he said.

“The size of that site allows us to be creative,” Murray said. “We want to enhance the economic value of the commercial center. That site is a donut hole in the middle of the east end. That would fill that donut hole in and bring up the whole area.”

The library’s overall plan is to consolidate the main library in downtown Dayton and 20 branches into 17 buildings. Kambitsch said the goal is to complete the system-wide project by the end of 2017.

Kambitsch said from a design perspective for a library, it’s “better building new,” but whether to renovate or build from scratch will be part of the evaluation process.

Kambitsch said he will release a draft of the plan for each building at the March 20 library board meeting. A four-phase plan is being worked out, with selection of which libraries are the highest priorities. That part of the process will be complete by the second quarter of this year, Kambitsch said.

A site selection for the Riverside/East Dayton branch could come by the end of this year, depending on which phase it is in. Kambitsch also said public meetings are being planned to give patrons a chance to learn about development plans and to offer feedback.

“I was very impressed with the homework they did,” Kambitsch said. “We are very gratified how communities like Riverside value libraries and are looking for us to locate there. Our conversations will be how we continue to serve the residents of Riverside.”

In 2012, the Burkhardt branch, 4680 Burkhardt, circulated 290,000 items and had nearly 153,000 visitors. The Spin Kemp site is a little more than a mile east of the current branch. The existing 7,998-square foot Burkhardt branch has been in existence since 1960 and received its only significant enhancement six years later.

As part of their presentation, Riverside officials said there are 37,000 residents who live within a mile-and-a-half radius of the Spin Kemp site, in addition to the 12 private/public schools in that area. A $1.44 million project to repair a mile-and-a-quarter stretch of Burkhardt is expected to take place this year.

“When educational resources are available to everyone, literacy improves, and the whole community benefits,” said Necia Nicholas, Superintendent for Mad River Schools. “A library branch in this area would prove as an invaluable asset to our students, parents and teachers.”