The Levine School will get a $147,000 grant from the county to help build out its music education center on the second floor of the Silver Spring Library.
The Montgomery County Council approved the capital grant Tuesday after reviewing a funding request from the music school in a committee meeting Monday. Last month, several council members asked for more time to review the grant request, noting the school had agreed in a previously signed a 10-year lease with the county that it would pay for the buildout costs at the library in exchange for a rent-free lease that only requires Levine to pay its utility costs.
However, Karen Shepherd, Levine’s head of Maryland campuses, wrote in a letter to the council the estimated cost of building out the space rose from an estimated $500,000 to more than $1.1 million after conversations with the library system and the Silver Spring community led to additional demands for soundproofing and other enhancements.
Levine said it would finance most of the additional costs through a fundraising effort, but said it needed the grant in order to complete the buildout and open the music school.
“Time is of the essence here, as we are moving rapidly so that we might open this campus soon after Labor Day this fall,” Shepherd wrote
Ramona Bell-Pearson, an assistant chief administrative officer for the county, said at the committee meeting Levine was the only bidder for the space, so Levine’s request for funding didn’t make the bid process unfair after the fact for other potential tenants.
During the committee meeting, council member Craig Rice encouraged county officials to allow prospective tenants applying for space at county-owned buildings to have greater access and more information about the properties before signing lease agreements to ensure tenants understand what their costs will be.
Bell-Pearson said meetings with the community and contractors after the lease agreement for the library space was signed resulted in additional costs for Levine because the project changed in scope. For example, initially Levine thought it could place its percussion classroom in a basement space of the building, but it was moved to the second floor, which required additional soundproofing to prevent sounds from being heard in the library. The local youth media nonprofit The Gandhi Brigade is in negotiations to lease the basement space at the library.
Rice said the county should adjust the leasing process to make sure similar problems don’t happen in the future. He noted the county plans to partner with additional businesses and nonprofits at other county buildings, such as at the new Wheaton Library and recreation facility, which is beginning the construction process.
“While this is a unique instance, it won’t be the only one,” Rice said.
The county is still looking for a tenant to occupy the ground-floor space at the Silver Spring Library, which faces the future Purple Line station at the intersection of Fenton Street and Wayne Avenue.
