That's the view of one ACT arts figure, Ainslie and Gorman Arts Centres director Joseph Falsone, who estimates about $2 million annually would be needed to run cultural activities at the Kingston Arts Precinct.

Developers have until December 10 to submit their vision for the 40,295 square-metre blank canvas after the site went on the market last week.

Early ideas unveiled in a feasibility study in June suggested about 7500 square metres, less than a fifth of the total site, should be dedicated to arts organisations.

But in calling for proposals the Land Development Agency is leaving it up to developers to suggest how arts venues would be balanced with dwellings and commercial ventures.

Without a detailed business case for the site and with the ACT's overarching arts facilities strategy now expired, Mr Falsone said it was too early to pass judgment on the precinct or imagine what it impact it would have on the "sensitive arts ecology".

But new funding would be essential.

"Where we see arts activities and infrastructure being used in commercial developments they have been successful at increasing public awareness and stimulating public demand for arts and cultural activity, but inevitably they still rely on government support," he said.

"It's difficult to see how the operating assumptions in the Kingston Arts Precinct feasibility study could be achieved without substantial new arts funding from the ACT government or from a major ongoing commitment to philanthropy from the developers of the site.

"That's not to say it couldn't be highly successful venture … but there are details yet to be clarified."

While Tuggeranong Arts Centre chief executive officer Rauny Worm welcomed any new arts infrastructure as a "good investment", she said support for artists needed to increase.

"Over many years now the arts' pie hasn't grown … and we're always being told that it will not grow," she said.

"I personally don't believe great venues guarantee great art."

She said urban renewal with new buildings didn't always lead to revitalisation and other areas of Canberra such as the "sad spot" of Civic and Tuggeranong were at risk of being left behind.

"Sitting in Tuggeranong, which is a bit of a tumbleweed outpost, it's a place that's screaming for some urban revitalisation, we're hoping one day that would be mirrored here," she said.

"We have new developments happening around us and I don't think there's been any consideration for arts and cultural development, it's all about commercial and that's really sad."

To ensure the Kingston precinct's operating model drove development rather than the other way round, Mr Falsone said an independent management body should be appointed as soon as possible, as recommended by the feasibility study.

While he was pleased the government and developers were increasingly seeing the value of arts activities alongside real estate for renewal, he said their success relied on input from specialists within the field.

"It's a complex and highly specialised business, which relies on non-profit, artist-led and community volunteer efforts to remain viable and achieve excellent arts outcomes," he said.