A "space-age", three-pod office building in Woden recognised for its architectural significance will be sold as the government warns of an escalating bill to reopen it.
But Fiona Carrick, the independent for Murrumbidgee, said the government had not done enough to look at restoring the building for community use.
"Callam Offices should be viewed as an opportunity to create something genuinely valuable for the community," Ms Carrick said.
A new estimate found the heritage-registered Callam Offices would cost about $128 million to return to use, up from the $87 million price tag flagged three years ago, prompting the government to look at selling the surrounding site to a developer.
Ms Carrick said a modern community hub at Callam Offices could bring together arts and cultural facilities, indoor sports, children's and family services, youth programs and community organisation accommodation.
"These are the types of facilities that strengthen social connection, support families and help create a thriving day and night economy," Ms Carrick said.
"Before pursuing a sale, the government should do the work, assess the options and genuinely consult the community about the best long-term outcome for Woden.
"We should be planning for people, not starting from a position that public land needs to be sold."
An ACT government spokesman said the cost of overhauling the building meant keeping it in public hands "was not considered a financially prudent option for the ACT government for any future use".
"The estimated costs of bringing the building up to a compliant and tenantable standard significantly informed the government's decision to pursue divestment of the site," the spokesman said.
Callam Offices, built for $9 million between 1977 and 1981 and originally home to the Woden TAFE College, has been empty since mid-2025 when the last government and community tenants left.
Infrastructure Canberra and the Suburban Land Agency are now working on plans for how the surrounding land in Section 80, Phillip could be sold and developed.
Public Service Minister Rachel Stephen-Smith told budget estimates the government had considered a "range of future options" for the offices site.
"This work has considered factors including heritage values, community outcomes, future government requirements, asset condition, compliance obligations, investment requirements, and value for money," Ms Stephen-Smith said in answer to a question on notice lodged by Ms Carrick.
"A standalone economic assessment specifically quantifying the benefits of retaining the site for community organisations, arts and culture has not been undertaken."
High-level estimates in 2023 found it would cost $87 million to complete works in the offices to meet minimum compliance standards.
"A further high-level assessment of the investment required to return the building to a suitable tenantable standard was undertaken in 2025 and indicated costs could be in the order of $128 million," Ms Stephen-Smith's answer said.
"This broader estimate reflects additional refurbishment, renewal and other works required to support future occupation and use, beyond minimum compliance activities."
The 2026-27 budget allocated about $1.8 million over two years for the building's essential maintenance and security.
In 2016, the government commissioned AMC Architecture to examine the refurbishment of Callam Offices and its surrounding precinct.
"This feasibility and design study demonstrated that the regeneration of an existing unused place of significant heritage and cultural value, and the creation of a 'community heart' style precinct are an inherently good use of the Callam Offices, and an opportunity to present the precinct as an exemplar in adaptive re-use in the ACT, nationally and internationally," AMC Architecture said on its website.
Ms Carrick said the debate had become dominated by refurbishment cost estimates when there had been little effort to quantify possible social, cultural and economic benefits of keeping the building.
"There is a broader concern that the government continues to sell public land while increasingly relying on the private sector to provide community infrastructure," she said.
"Whether it is recreation facilities, cultural spaces or community services, these are often not profit-making ventures and should not be left entirely to the market to deliver.
"Public land is a finite asset. Once it is sold, it is gone. Before potentially divesting a strategically located site in the centre of Woden, the government should establish what community infrastructure will be needed over coming decades and whether this land could help meet those needs."
Callam Offices were envisaged as part of a much larger precinct designed by architect John Andrews for the National Capital Development Commission.
"The buildings are of interest for their conceptual planning and styling, as well as for their radical construction method - in which the floors of the office pods are suspended via high-tensile steel cables hung from central masts and columns, expressed above the roofs, allowing the pods to float above their site," the building's 2008 entry on the ACT's heritage register says.
In 2012, Mr Andrews said he still bitterly regretted his vision for 26 pods had been reduced to what was then only home to 430 staff.
"I mean, they only built three of the bloody things and turned it into a TAFE. It was going to be a major office complex," he said.
