City of Newcastle has expressed "keen interest" in using the ground floor of the vacant Tower Cinemas building as a temporary art gallery.
The building's owner has lodged plans for the former cinema site, including the gallery space and an indoor rock climbing centre.
Beresfield-based construction firm RTC bought the King Street site in late 2021 for $2.9 million after Event Cinemas closed the Tower three years earlier.
A "Save the Tower" community campaign tried unsuccessfully to keep the inner-city's last remaining cinema open.
RTC's development application seeks to convert the top floor of the building into an indoor bouldering centre run by BlocHaus open from 6am to midnight every day.
The development application says the council has expressed "keen interest" in using the ground floor for a temporary art exhibition.
City of Newcastle confirmed it had proposed using the ground level temporarily "for a one-off program presented by Newcastle Art Gallery later this year".
A council spokesperson said details of this program would be announced "at a later date" pending approval of the development application.
Community advocate and former Newcastle Greens local government candidate Sinead Francis-Coan said she was "surprised" to hear the council was involved in the cinema building's future.
Ms Francis-Coan led the community campaign to retain the cinema, attracting 7000 signatures to a petition in 2018.
"What I've always called for consistently is just community consultation, keeping the community in the loop," she said on Friday.
"It's a bit of a surprise, and especially to hear that the council is involved."
She said it was "ironic" the council had recently placed its community engagement strategy on public exhibition.
"We're looking at lots of other things and people don't feel the consultation's been super great.
"So it's a shame to see the council involved."
Ms Francis-Coan said it was in the proponent's interest to engage with the community given the "clearly demonstrated public interest".
"I think the benefit of that for anyone looking to operate a business is they'll have public support.
"That would be what I would think would be the obvious benefit of being involved in community discussions."
The development application says the proponent plans to make minor alterations to the building, including removing all cinema seating and projectors and installing five new upstairs windows facing King Street.
The Newcastle Herald contacted RTC for comment.
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