City of Newcastle chief executive officer Jeremy Bath says he is waiting on a second repair estimate before the council decides the fate of the Mall Park Station.
The council-owned parking garage, one of the city's largest, has been closed since March.
Lord mayor Nuatali Nelmes vowed last week to replace all of its 489 parking spaces if it had to be demolished.
Mr Bath said on Wednesday that COVID-19 had presented the council with an opportunity to close the car park and assess its future.
"It's a 60-year-old car park, and 60 years ago they didn't build car parks to last 60 years," he said.
"It's a structural issue, and it's nothing we can't spend money to fix, but whenever there's a sizeable amount of money involved in the repair of an asset ... you've got to make a decision on whether it's better to knock it down and build again."
Mr Bath said he would not talk with Iris Capital, the developers of the massive EastEnd residential development which surrounds the car park, about a possible agreement to replace the car park until he knew whether it was worth repairing.
"I've got a figure, but I've asked for a second figure. That's a significant bit of work," he said.
Iris chief executive officer Sam Arnaout said last week that the car park site was not on the company's agenda but "if and when it ever became an opportunity, I'd consider it".
Mr Bath said the Mall car park had not been declared unsafe, but he was "not comfortable waiting for the car park to further deteriorate to a point where it is unsafe to operate".
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