This toy story could have a sad ending for New York.

The owner of the building at 23rd Street and Fifth Avenue that is known as the International Toy Center, home to toymakers for 103 years, is preparing to convert it to condominium apartments. That has strengthened the possibilities that the toy shows that have been a Manhattan mainstay for a century will move to Dallas, Atlanta, or Orlando.

At a meeting Tuesday at Los Angeles, the board of the Toy Industry Association is scheduled to vote on whether to move its October toy show to Dallas. If the smaller October show leaves the city, it is more likely the large February trade show, held at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center, would be moved to Atlanta or Orlando. That show draws 35,000 out-of-town visitors for five days and has an economic impact of up to $35 million, according to an estimate by the city’s Economic Development Corporation.

Whatever the future of the toy trade shows, the more than 200 tenants of the 650,000-square-foot International Toy Center – which includes both 200 Fifth Ave. and 1107 Broadway – must move. They have formed the 200 Fifth Avenue Tenants Association and hired Cushman & Wakefield. That real-estate firm served as advisers in helping the gift industry relocate to 7 W. 34th St. after the Gift Building, at 225 Fifth Ave., was bought for condominium conversions.

“The toy industry is a part of New York, and we want to make sure we preserve it,” a City Council member from Queens, Hiram Monserrate, said yesterday at the first meeting of the tenants association. Mr. Monserrate attended to show support for the tenants because his father had worked as a porter and security guard at the toy center for 28 years, and Mr. Monserrate himself had been a security guard there before joining the New York Police Department. He said he attended his first toy show at age 7.

“I have so many memories of this building,” Mr. Monserrate said, smiling. He said he still has friends, and knows the children of friends, who work at the landmark building.

Staff from Senator Schumer’s office also attended the tenants’ meeting. Mr. Schumer has spoken to the building’s new landlord, Joseph Chetrit, urging him to negotiate with the tenants to keep the industry in New York. Mr. Chetrit has offered the International Toy Center’s tenants 250,000 square feet in another building he owns, the old Daily News building at 220 E. 42nd St., a member of the Toy Industry Association board, Kenneth Lewis, told The New York Sun.

Mr. Lewis, who is co-head of the board’s subcommittee for trade shows and is a tenant of 200 Fifth Ave., said Mr. Chetrit also offered leaseholder improvements of as much as $100 a square foot. The deal is by no means clinched: The space in the 42nd Street building is barely one-third that of the International Toy Center, and the tenants are looking for a minimum of 300,000 square feet. Also, Mr. Chetrit has not yet made his offer in writing, Mr. Lewis said.

For Mr. Chetrit to follow through with his plans of converting the International Toy Center into condominiums – which Cushman & Wakefield said could bring as much as $1,200 a square foot, or $1.2 billion – he needs a zoning variance. The Board of Standards and Appeals must approve it, and as of yesterday Mr. Chetrit had not applied for a variance.

Some of the tenants of the International Toy Center are dead-set against moving and have a number of years left on their leases. The leaders of the tenants’ association, however, have found five other buildings they like. Those include a historical landmark from 1903 at TriBeCa and a building at the World Financial Center near Battery Park City.

Members of the industry association board toured the six buildings yesterday in preparation for their meeting next week.

“It was a poker game, and it will come down to my presentation next week to see how they will vote,” Mr. Lewis said.

The Toy Industry Association board is sharply divided over the issue of whether to move the large annual show from New York. Some association members said that the cost of New York makes it prohibitive, and that the Javits center cannot accommodate so large a show. After the Javits center has been expanded, these members say, perhaps the show could return.

“We have to take into consideration our members’ concerns, and there are a large number of complaints about the cost of doing business in New York,” the president of the association, Thomas Conley, said. He is not a member of the board.

Mr. Conley said the October trade show does not need to be in the same city as the February trade show and could be moved to Dallas without harming the February show at New York. The association has a contract through next February to have the toy show at the Javits Center.

Other members said the October and February shows are linked and should be held in the same place. They said board members who wish to move the shows were considering the association’s financial well-being more than the interests of association members. The association rents the entire Javits center during the February trade show and then rents out space to each toy vendor. Some members said that because it would be cheaper to hold the trade show in another city, the association could make a larger profit.

“The Toy Industry Association has lost its focus,” Mr. Lewis said. “It used to be more into what is right and wrong for members and manufacturers.”

He added: “If we didn’t stand up to the board, Dallas would be a done deal by now.”

The city’s Economic Development Corporation and NYC & Company, its convention bureau, have been working to keep the trade shows in Manhattan.