One of Lafayette's oldest and most historic buildings Downtown is closing.
Sans Souci Fine Arts Gallery located on 219 E Vermillion Street is set to close for renovations on Nov. 6.
Andre Juneau, Board President of Louisiana Crafts Guild is one of the artists who use this space to showcase and sell his work.
"We solved the water ingress ourselves and basically asked for repairs there," Juneau said. "As far as the AC goes, I'm usually the AC guy and we actually had the exact, same failure in the other unit two months ago and I fixed it myself."
Juneau said lately, he's been traveling to do art shows and he was out of town when the second air conditioner failed.
According to The Lafayette Public Trust Financing Authority, the lease is being terminated for structural and maintenance repairs.
Kevin Blanchard, Executive Director of LPTFA said the renovations are overdue.
"For right now, we're going to at least have to replace all of the siding in the front of the building and much of the sides around the side of the building," Blanchard said.
Once repairs are complete, the building will be back on the market to prospective tenants, but for market rate.
"The Trust owns the building and has owned the building for the last ten years," Blanchard said. "The issue is that in order for us to be able to make sure that that building is around for another hundred and fifty years, we have to find a way to make the economic situation around that building more sustainable."
According to LPTFA, The Louisiana Crafts Guild tenants have been paying roughly three-hundred dollars a month to house Sans Souci, but this rate is not enough to cover insurance.
A local contractor has already been hired to remodel the building, but who the next tenant will be, has not been confirmed.
The Louisiana Crafts Guild was designed to serve as a resource for artists and help promote and showcase South Louisiana's culture.
Members of The Guild are looking for a new location to display their crafts and artifacts.
