Labour Coun Janice Hanson called on Lancaster City Council to act quickly to get things moving at the building in Regent Road.
“That Co-op building is an absolute disgrace,” she said at the latest meeting of Lancaster City Council.
"I’m ashamed to say it’s in my ward. Can the council address this and quickly?
" Us people in the West End feel like second-class citizens with having had to look at that building for years.”
The council has been supporting the Good Things Collective – a large membership Community Interest Company limited by guarantee – in its ambition to take on the building.
Green Coun Tim Hamilton-Cox said the Collective had experienced problems with a previous funding bid for the Co-op.
But it had submitted a new bid including to the Arts Council and an announcement was expected fairly soon.