Business View City & Municipal | August 2022

96 CIVIL AND MUNICIPAL VOLUME 3, ISSUE 7 Adding to the mall’s lifestyle appeal is a potential new library branch. The city is currently under discussion over adding a River Ridge library branch, furthering its “lifelong learning” initiative. Adding the new branch to the mall will help free up capital funds that would otherwise be used to create a new branch in another location. “Talking about the potential for that partnership with Liberty was one of those ‘aha’ moments,” Benda says. “There are 26,000 people who have library cards and that means more foot traffic to the town center. That’s many plus ones. It’s really one of those win-win circumstances for the city.” While the COVID-19 pandemic stalled development a bit, the River Ridge project is back on course and is anticipated to be finished by the end of 2022. So far, Liberty’s total investment is around $80 million. “The nice thing for Liberty is that probably no other REIT in the country would have done what we’ve done. The 712 Church Street Lynchburg, Virginia 24504 thevirginianhotel.com | 434.329.3200 Timeless luxury in the heart of downtown Lynchburg