History Center of Traverse City board members voted unanimously last night to terminate the organization's lease with the city and vacate the city-owned Carnegie Building in 30 days – leaving management of the building and the 10,000-artifact Con Foster collection in the city's hands -- and the building's future wide open.

The History Center will provide its required 30 days' notice to city staff today (Wednesday), giving the organization until November 15 to vacate the premises. Board members warned city officials earlier this year the nonprofit was unable to keep up with the $100,000 annual cost to maintain the 110-year-old Carnegie Building and would need to terminate the lease agreement unless the city provided financial help.

City commissioners agreed in September to pay up to $10,000 through the end of the year to assist with utilities and other costs. But History Center board members tell The Ticker the gesture was too little, too late and that the nonprofit is in danger of going bankrupt if it remains in the building through December.

“The subsidy doesn't help with much of anything,” says board member John Di Giacomo. “We're out of money. We've spent millions in this spot, and it's unfortunate we have to walk away from it...but it's better for us to leave now while we're still solvent.”

Acting Executive Director Maddie Buteyn says the History Center is in the final stages of discussions with another local property owner to secure a new home, noting the property is in “an area that's fitting for us” and will allow the organization to “bring history to the community instead of making the community come to us.”

“I don't want people to misunderstand – we're not using (the lease termination) as a threat,” says Buteyn. “We have to think of our nonprofit, our members and our own collection of archives. The Carnegie Building and the Con Foster collection belong to the city. We've tried to take care of it for them for 13 years, and we can't do it anymore.”

In June, the History Center approached the city about paying $124,000 annually to continue maintaining the building and collection. An ad hoc committee of the city commission is now studying that and other proposals for the future of the Carnegie Building. Buteyn says it's “frustrating” the commission has not yet denied or accepted their proposal in light of the organization's financial distress.

“It's not a matter of us making money off the city,” she says. “They're paying us for services rendered.”

With the History Center's proposal to the city still technically on the table, Di Giacomo says the board “would have to consider it” if the city came back to ask that they continue to maintain the Con Foster collection and/or remain in the Carnegie Building. Otherwise, Di Giacomo says the organization's targeted new home is a “positive step” that would allow the group to continue providing “all the services and programming we currently do, if not more.”

The History Center's departure from the Carnegie Building could also set the table for ArtCenter Traverse City to move in; the organization, which recently announced a merger with Crooked Tree Arts Center of Petoskey, also has a proposal on the table for use of the building.