For ninety years, generations of Utrecht residents queued at the corner of Voorstraat and Drift to watch films at the City cinema. Since it closed its doors in May, the future of the building has been an open question. Now three Utrecht creative organisations say they want to give it a new life — not as a cinema, but as a space for makers by day and cultural activity at night.

According to DUIC, Beton-T, De Vechtclub and De Kantine announced plans this week for a joint concept in the former cinema, describing a mix of daytime space for makers and creative work with evening and nighttime programming, including the idea of a night shop. Vechtclub director Roswita Warmerdam told DUIC the idea combines "a little Beton-T, a little Vechtclub and a little Kantine, but day and night," calling the building "an opportunity you almost never see pass by again." The three organisations already work together: Vechtclub runs the Beton-T outdoor venue and De Kantine restaurant, both a short distance away in Utrecht's Cartesius district. DUIC also reports that the building's owner, Robert-Paul Caron, has confirmed reaching an arrangement with the three parties over use of the building, but municipal permission is still needed and the precise concept remains unsettled.

The building itself has a protected status that shapes what can happen next. Voorstraat 89 has been a national monument since 2001, according to the Rijksdienst voor het Cultureel Erfgoed's monument register, valued for its Nieuwe Zakelijkheid architecture and its place in the history of cinema in the Netherlands. Under the city's 2012 zoning plan for the centre, the site is designated for culture and recreation, which permits uses such as museums, ateliers, and music, dance or theatre schools — but DUIC reports that a condition of the building's sale rules out another cinema for at least twenty years.

The city government has signalled that it wants a cultural use to survive here, while acknowledging that its control over a privately owned building is limited. Answering written questions from GroenLinksPvdA, UtrechtNu! and CDA earlier this year, the college of mayor and aldermen said it intends to preserve the large "CITY" letters on the building's façade and is in talks with the new owner and cultural parties about keeping a cultural function on the site, according to DUIC's reporting; this newsroom has not independently checked the written answers. Consistent with that process, the heritage consultancy Huysch Monumentenadvies says on its own website that it has already assessed restoration costs for the building's facade and catalogued its historic interior materials — groundwork of the kind a redevelopment would need before construction could begin.

The building's closure is not an isolated case. In written answers last autumn about the fate of Utrecht's cultural landmarks, the college acknowledged that cinema Rembrandt on the Oudegracht was also due to close and pointed to the restoration of the municipally-owned Magazijn de Zon — set to house the National Literature Museum — as an example of how it tries to steer redevelopment toward keeping a building's cultural role intact. Whether the City cinema gets a similar outcome will depend in part on the permit process and the plans the three organisations develop.