TRAVERSE CITY — Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians’ tribal council is interested in leasing a movie theater and former museum in Traverse City.
The Bijou could be the future home of a cultural interpretive center to share the history of GTBOCI and related tribes in northwest Michigan, GTBOCI Tribal Council Chairwoman Sandra Witherspoon wrote in a Nov. 7 letter to city Attorney Lauren Trible-Laucht.
“It would also reflect on the shared heritage between the tribe and the settler community, acknowledging our intertwined histories,” Witherspoon wrote. “By presenting these narratives, we aim to promote a deeper understanding of our common heritage and encourage dialogue on sustainable ecological practices and cultural appreciation.”
Such a cultural center could include interactive exhibits, educational programs and collaborative events aimed at visitors of all ages, Witherspoon wrote. That would not only align with the educational and cultural goals of Traverse City Film Festival, but tie into ongoing tribal efforts to restore the Boardman/Ottaway River, including with the bidirectional selective fish passageway known as FishPass.
Messages to Witherspoon and her executive assistant were left Monday afternoon.
Whatever happens next will be up to city commissioners, who will conduct a public process to find the next tenant of the Bijou, Mayor Amy Shamroe said. She said as much in light of a letter to city commissioners from Michael Moore, Traverse City Film Festival founder and president, stating the nonprofit wants to give up its lease of the Bijou.
In that letter, Moore identified GTBOCI as a potential new tenant, while acknowledging the decision is the city’s since Traverse City owns the building.
Leaving the Bijou wasn’t an easy decision, Moore said. But lots of factors piled up to make showing movies there too costly, starting with a circuit board in the theater’s digital projector getting “fried” shortly before Memorial Day. Getting a replacement from Europe proved difficult, given supply chain issues.
Then construction closed Grandview Parkway in front of the theater, making it all but impossible for people to get there, Moore said. On top of a post-pandemic shift in how people watch movies, keeping two arthouse movie theaters open proved unfeasible.
“Our main mission is to make sure the State (Theater) stays open, to keep that downtown movie theater open and to keep our weekly version of the TC Film Fest going,” he said.
Witherspoon in an earlier letter said the tribe would submit a detailed proposal for the cultural center within 90 days of reaching an agreement between the city, tribe and TCFF on managing the Bijou. She referenced a Sept. 23 meeting between tribal councilmembers, city administrators and Moore to discuss the idea — Moore was away making a film, so he attended virtually, he said.
Shamroe said that city commissioners could issue a request for proposals to find the Bijou’s next tenant once the TCFF withdraws. That’s based on past practice for city-owned properties, although the exact process is open to discussion.
“Certainly if the Grand Traverse Band has some ideas, and wants to put in a bid for that, they’d be more than welcome to,” she said. “But I think that the process would be an open-bid process for the tribe as well as anyone else who might have an idea of what that space might be used for for the public good.”
Other groups were interested in the Bijou in August 2021 when city commissioners agreed to renew TCFF’s lease for another 10 years, Shamroe said. That’s partly why she voted against the extension, which commissioners passed 6-1 two years before the lease was set to expire.
Moore said TCFF wanted to ensure the Bijou wouldn’t be left vacant as it had before the film festival moved in in 2013. The nonprofit spent $1 million to restore the building, formerly the Con Foster Museum in Clinch Park. It’s money Moore said TCFF was happy to invest in a historic building dating to the 1930s.
“It’s not our job to find a new tenant,” he said. “We’re just doing this as a gift of kindness to the city, and knowing the history of this building and how it’s been left vacant and abandoned so many times.”
Shamroe said that argument presumes the city would have left the Bijou empty, and neglected it at that. That hasn’t been the case for the former library known as the Carnegie Center, she argued.
Shamroe at Monday’s city commission meeting said there’s been no decision on the building’s future, and that city staff and tribal councilmembers didn’t intend to do anything outside the usual process.
Moore said he hopes to be out of the Bijou by the start of December. City Manager Liz Vogel, in a response to Moore’s letter to city commissioners, agreed to terminate the lease and asked TCFF to move out and return the keys by Dec. 2 if the nonprofit agreed as well.
The lease between TCFF and the city includes a requirement that TCFF keep the Bijou open to the public for at least 200 days per year. The nonprofit in 2023 claimed force majeure, or that extraordinary outside forces beyond its control kept it from meeting those terms. At the time, TCFF pointed to state pandemic orders shuttering every theater.
Moore said he claimed force majeure again in light of the projector malfunction in May and road construction starting in July, but city officials disputed this. While Moore insisted he had brought up the claim of force majeure in a May conversation with city Clerk Benjamin Marentette, the city clerk said Moore did not.
Nor did Moore and Vogel agree on whether they discussed force majeure. He said the two had discussed it extensively, but Vogel said he didn’t bring it up until the Sept. 23 meeting — and that he didn’t mention it in writing until sending the letter to commissioners in November stating he had raised it in May.
Commissioner Tim Werner said he had no hard feelings about the film festival opting to move out of the Bijou. He was among those who voted in 2021 to extend the lease, and he’s glad to see some movement on what happens next with the building.
“To me … it has seemed obvious that the film festival was not on the cusp of reopening the Bijou for movies, so I’m glad that things are finally out in the public and we’re having good discussions about what’s happening next with that building.”
Werner echoed that it’ll be up to city commissioners to decide on the next tenant, adding they’ll decide regardless of what TCFF recommends.
That discussion among city commissioners could be coming in the next few months, Shamroe said.