Hollyhock Library in Surprise AZ: New Location and Hours

The outdoor book return for Hollyhock Library now sits in the west parking lot, next to the dining hall patio. That dining hall is the Sprouts Dining Hall. It belongs to a 35,000-square-foot building at 12641 W. Santa Fe Dr. in Surprise's Original Town Site, and the library shares that building with the city's Senior Services, the Resource Center, Head Start classrooms and a long list of other programs.

Until August, these were separate trips. The library, the senior center and the resource center each had its own address. The Surprise Community & Resource Center, which the city calls the SCRC, combined them under one roof. That changes how the building can be used. One visit can now cover a library pickup, a senior lunch program and help with a résumé, and a few of the city's own referrals now point to an office down the hall.

Three Addresses Became One

The city staggered the move over about two weeks in August so no program went dark for long. Here is how it went, according to the city's relocation notice:

Both Hollyhock Street locations have closed for good. While the Senior Center was between buildings, members were sent to Banner Olive Branch at 623.465.6000 for the in-person Congregate Meal Program. Senior Services reopened in the new building on Aug. 27. The ribbon cutting on Sept. 3 made it official. By then, the Resource Center had been operating in the new building for two weeks, and Senior Services and the library for about one.

People driving Grand Avenue saw it coming. In July 2025, The Arizona Republic ran a piece asking what was going up next to the public pool in the Original Town Site. It placed the project at Grand Avenue and Greenway Road, on city-owned land.

One Building, Three Different Clocks

The services share a building but keep their own hours, so the doors you can walk through depend on the time of day.

Senior Services runs Monday through Friday, 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. Hollyhock Library opens three hours later. It runs 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Wednesday and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Thursday through Saturday, and it's closed Sunday.

That means early weekday mornings belong to Senior Services alone. From 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on weekdays, both are open. Monday through Wednesday evenings, the library runs four hours past Senior Services' closing time. On Saturdays, the library is the only one of the two that's open.

The Resource Center ran temporary hours when it reopened on Aug. 20 and moved to a permanent schedule on Aug. 31. The city posts the current hours on its SCRC page, and that's the place to check before you go.

The library also gained a perk with the move. Hollyhock now opens on most City-observed holidays. All three Surprise libraries still close on Thanksgiving, Black Friday and Christmas, so the late-November trip to stock up on holiday reading has to happen before Thanksgiving week.

The Referral That Now Ends Down the Hall

The clearest sign of what changed is in the library's own FAQ. If you ask whether library staff can help fill out a job application or update a résumé, the answer is no. The page sends you to the Surprise Community & Resource Center at 623.222.1600 and its employment services workshops instead. When the library was on Hollyhock Street and the Resource Center was on Bell Road, that referral meant a second drive. Now the library is inside the building it refers people to.

The same holds for most of what the building offers. According to the city's grand opening announcement, the SCRC houses:

• After-school youth programs
• Benefit assistance
• Health and wellness programs
• Head Start classrooms
• Housing and homeless assistance
• Library services
• Senior services
• Veteran services
• Workforce development

The city says dozens of government agencies and nonprofit organizations provide these services through partnerships. The building also serves more than one city. The city describes it as serving the entire Northwest Valley.

The library's own services at the new location are printing, Wi-Fi and curbside pickup. Meeting rooms can be booked at all three Surprise branches. If you need a small study room, though, Asante Library has the system's only three.

Who Paid for It

The building came out of an intergovernmental agreement between the City of Surprise and Maricopa County, and the funding is spread across several sources:

• Maricopa County: $18 million from its federal American Rescue Plan Act allocation
• City of Surprise: $9 million, drawn from city ARPA dollars, Health Resources and Services Administration funds and the General Fund
• Congressionally directed spending: $1 million requested through Senator Mark Kelly's office
• Sprouts Healthy Communities Foundation: a $450,000 pledge for wellness, nutrition and resiliency programs, which is why the dining area is named Sprouts Dining Hall

The county put in twice as much as the city did. At the opening, Board of Supervisors Vice Chair Debbie Lesko, who represents Surprise as part of District 4, explained the county's reasoning in the city's release: "With this growth comes the responsibility to ensure public services are expanding at an equal pace." In the same release, Mayor Kevin Sartor said the center came about by "bringing together businesses, nonprofits and volunteers who share our passion for people."

Danson Construction, Gabor Lorant Architects Inc. and EDS Management were the city's design and construction partners.

Hollyhock Is One Branch in a City-Run System

The library's name stayed the same, and so did the system it belongs to. Surprise took over its libraries from the Maricopa County Library District in 2023. YourValley reported at the time that city cards became required at Surprise branches on July 1 of that year. If you've had a Surprise Public Library System card since then, it works the same at the new Hollyhock as it did at the old one.

That makes Hollyhock one of three city branches, each on its own schedule:

Surprise Regional is the only branch open on Sundays. It's also the only one with a copier.

The policies that came with the city system apply at Hollyhock too. Surprise libraries don't charge overdue fines. An item becomes "lost" 31 days after its final renewal, and if you bring it back, the replacement cost is waived. Most items renew automatically up to five times unless another patron has placed a hold. Express items, Culture Passes, interlibrary loans and MAX items are the exceptions and don't renew. Getting a card doesn't require proof of address or ID.

All three branches carry Act One Culture Passes, and each pass admits two people to a participating organization. The passes have to be checked out in person. They can't be reserved in advance, and each family is limited to one at a time and two per month. A pass checks out for seven days and can't be renewed. Act One's current list includes the Heard Museum, Desert Botanical Garden, Phoenix Art Museum, Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art, S'edav Va'aki Museum, Cave Creek Museum, Cosanti and Arcosanti. It also reaches north to Lowell Observatory and the Sedona Heritage Museum and south to the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum and Reid Park Zoo. The library suggests contacting the venue ahead of time for current hours. You can check whether a pass is available in the online catalog before heading to the Santa Fe Drive branch.

November on the City Calendar

The month's city events build on the same civic calendar:

1. Veterans Day Parade, Wednesday, Nov. 11, 10 a.m. to noon, at Surprise Recreation Campus, 15850 N. Bullard Ave. With veteran services now based at the SCRC, the building and the parade serve the same residents.
2. "Reflecting America: A Semiquincentennial Living History," Thursday, Nov. 19, 6 to 7:30 p.m., a free storytelling event at Surprise Regional Library, 16089 N. Bullard Ave., which the Surprise Independent reports extends the city's 250th celebration into November.
3. Surprise SciTech Festival, Saturday, Nov. 21, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., a free all-ages event at Surprise Recreation Campus.

All three events are on North Bullard Avenue, the same street as Surprise Regional Library, which has the longest hours in the system. Hollyhock's Saturday hours end at 5 p.m., so a SciTech morning can still fit in a stop at the Santa Fe Drive branch that afternoon.

If you live near Santa Fe Drive and Hollyhock Street and want to know what your home is worth now that a $28 million-plus civic building has opened in the Original Town Site, Christina Ramirez and the Valley Leaders team can put together your free home valuation. We'll tell you plainly what's moving the numbers on your street.