
By Kevin Haas
Rock River Current
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ROCKFORD — The Rockford Public Library has a pristine new main branch along the Rock River ready to welcome its first guests this weekend.
Next door it owns a gutted former office building that was once envisioned as a riverfront apartment complex.
Now, the library board is considering demolishing that brick and stone building, a move it sees as offering the best potential to attract development to the corner of Jefferson and Wyman streets.
“Now that we’re nearing completion of the library we decided this really had to be put on the front burner,” said Paul Logli, president of the library’s board of trustees. “We can’t have a blighted building sitting there next to a brand new, state-of-the-art library.”
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City Council members on Monday were informed they’ll be asked to consider a partnership with the library board in the coming weeks that calls for demolishing the library-owned building at 102 W. Jefferson St.
The proposed intergovernmental agreement calls for the city covering half the cost of demolition up to $375,000, with the library covering the rest, according to Todd Cagnoni, city administrator. The proposal goes to the council’s Finance and Personnel Committee next week.
“As the redevelopment of that overall area has been evaluated, it was felt that the highest and best use would be new construction or open land,” Cagnoni said. “And they don’t want a blighted property immediately adjacent to their brand-new library, and we would concur.”

Meanwhile, the library is preparing for a grand opening at 9 a.m. Saturday of its new 66,000-square-foot, $39 million library at 215 N. Wyman St. next door.
The main branch was rebuilt after the previous library on the site had to be demolished to make way for ComEd, which had ties to an old gas plant on site, to conduct an environmental cleanup of the earth beneath the building.
Logli said the structure next door was already in bad shape when the library purchased it several years ago. He said an addition on the back of the building supported by stilts is structurally unsound and would need to be demolished even if the rest of the property was reused.
Razing the building and leaving it as open space is seen as the best method to prime it for new use, he said.
The library purchased the building for $300,000 from 3 Land Development Ltd. of Elgin. in January 2017, according to records from the Winnebago County Clerk & Recorder. At the time, the building was to be torn down to serve as a staging area during ComEd’s environmental cleanup, according to Rockford Register Star archives.
However, a developer later came forward for a plan to reuse the property.
Iowa-based Bush Construction had planned an 85-apartment development with a riverfront restaurant, retail space and underground parking. But the company pulled out of the project in summer 2022 when it said the economics of the development no longer worked.
“We have had some other interest, which is why we believe if we and the city work together on the demolition that I think that will encourage a developer once again to look at it,” Logli said. “All the proposals we received before the Iowa one came forward were assuming demolition of that property.”
Logli said the library board will likely take up a vote on whether to go forward with demolition after City Council votes on the proposed demolition agreement.
This article is by Kevin Haas. Email him at khaas@rockrivercurrent.com or follow him on X at @KevinMHaas or Instagram @thekevinhaas and Threads @thekevinhaas