City of Newcastle is seeking to offload a section of prime office space in its city administration headquarters as part of a push to consolidate its presence in the building.
The council has had a presence on each of 12 Stewart Avenue's six levels since it relocated there in 2019 at a cost of $17.6 million.
It holds a long-term lease on the building and presently subleases space to nine other organisations.
The space includes 80 workstations, five quiet rooms, three meeting rooms, breakout and collaboration space, informal meeting areas and amenities.
End-of-trip facilities including showers, change room and lockers and bike storage are also available.
Despite offering 80 work spaces, the space only comes with nine car parking spaces.
A business case used to justify council's 2019 move to Stewart Avenue from its King Street headquarters said the new location would increase staff productivity, decrease absenteeism and act as a catalyst for broader city development.
One of the "key drivers" for the shift was concern that City of Newcastle "continued to lag a majority of Sydney-based local councils in terms of quality work environment, support services and staff amenities, and functional public venue for the local community," the business case said.
A council spokesman said on Friday that the decision to sublease level five followed a review of staff occupancy throughout the building.
"City of Newcastle subleased one floor of the council administration centre in 2022. This was done at a rent that delivers a profit to City of Newcastle," he said.
"A review of occupancy levels throughout the remainder of the building suggested we could sublease a second floor, if we increased the number of workstations on other floors.
"This work is now complete and a leasing campaign is underway to sublease a section of level five.
"Should we secure a tenant, the staff who work on level five would be accommodated on other floors throughout the building."
After previously refusing calls to make public the total spend on the Stewart Avenue relocation, the council revealed via a media release in December 2020 that the project had cost $17.6 million.
The move was divided into four projects: office space for 450 staff at $8,389,994, a local emergency operations centre at $2,173,982, a digital library at $3,267,465, and a council chamber at $1,041,824.
It also revealed it paid contractor, Graphite Projects, $2,749,827 for all four projects, as well as associated costs including signage and flagpoles.
The former Roundhouse was sold for $16.5 million to Syrian billionaire Ghassan Aboud, who has transformed it into a luxury hotel.
