The cost to build a "world class facility" that would house a proposed GLBT Historical Society Museum and Archival Center would be $10.6 million, according to the first of two feasibility studies on the project.

The report, done by the Gensler group, concludes that the new facility would require 16,550 square feet of space. The finding calls into question the suitability of using the parking lot adjacent to the Castro branch library on 16th Street as a building site.

The initial report did not analyze any potential building sites – a second site-specific report should be completed by September – but historical society officials concede that the library's lot is not big enough to construct such a large building.

"One of the crucial insights of the non site-specific study is that site would be very difficult for us to use as a place to grow," said Don Romesburg, co-chair of the society's board. "We have two chief aims: to ensure a permanent home for our community's history and the second one is to make sure that home is one that is useful for us in the long term."

Supervisor Bevan Dufty, who has championed building a home for the society in the Castro and secured city funds to conduct the study, said he has informed library officials, who are moving forward with plans to renovate the branch, that he will not pursue a joint development at that site.

"The consultant months ago talked to me to tell me it was clear the library site was not suitable. I am not going to try to shoehorn the historical society there if it doesn't work," said Dufty.

As for the price tag the consultants came up with, both Romesburg and Paul Boneberg, the society's part-time executive director, balked at the amount.

"We are determined to find a solution that will be decidedly less than that," said Romesburg.

Boneberg added, "I think it is very high, and obviously, not something ... we are not going to go down a path that requires us to spend $10.6 million."

The total cost is nowhere to be found in the report, but can be deduced by using a note on construction costs that estimates the price tag for new construction in 2007 of a "high level of quality" is roughly $525 per square foot and interior build-out costs, excluding the price of furniture, would run roughly $115 per square foot.

The consultants concluded that the society's new home would require 6,500 square feet in archive space; 3,000 square feet for exhibits; another 3,000 square feet for a theater, bookstore, and caf� space; and 2,000 square feet for administrative offices, with the remaining 2,050 square feet set aside for restrooms, a cloakroom, and various staff space.

Historical society officials are remaining tight-lipped on what sites the consultants will include in their next report. The only site they confirmed the consultants will look at is the library's parking lot.

One other site expected to be included on the list is the "hole in the ground" one block up from the library at the corner of 16th and Market streets. A developer recently purchased the site from the Noe Valley church that had hoped to build a new sanctuary on the property but put the lot up for sale last year.

Boneberg declined to comment when asked specifically about the property, but he did say several people have approached the society about being incorporated into their own development projects.

"I am not at liberty to say, but more than one party has invited us to consider locations," he said.

Romesburg said the society is only interested in sites in the Castro or near the city's Museum Row along Mission Street south of Market, where the society currently leases a third floor suite.

What is also certain is any move is at least another four to five years away, said Boneberg, who wants to first increase the society's budget from around $300,000 now to $2 million within four years. He also wants to hire a managing archivist on a part-time basis this year, and by 2008 bring himself, the archivist and an operations manager position full-time.

"We need to grow to be able to make a move five years down the line," he said.

Romesburg said the board backs Boneberg's plan.

"The bottom line about a plan for a new home is that we're excited to advance the effort, but it isn't the central push of our institution right now. We want to ensure that our movement toward a permanent home not take energies away from all the expanding, effective work we do (and will continue to do) to give our queer lives the legacy and remembrance they deserve," he wrote in an e-mail.