The Chop Shop is the brainchild of artists Pat Rose and Sancho Murphy, who planned to open a temporary gallery, bar and live music venue in an old mechanic's workshop on Lonsdale Street that is set to be torn down in January 2015.

They created a Kickstarter campaign to raise $10,000 for the project - a goal that was broken with a week to spare, eventually raising $17,380 - and were set to open in August.

But in late July the Chop Shop team were slapped with a stop work notice from the ACT Planning and Land Authority over fire safety concerns - a ban that left the project's future uncertain.

Mr Rose said he and Ms Murphy had been making valuable progress towards getting the Chop Shop back on track, submitting extra paperwork, working with the Government to come up with a fire and safety plan and appointing a certifier for the site.

"Hopefully by the end of the week we will have the stop work removed and we're aiming for the fifth or the sixth [of September] as our opening night."

But he said he wouldn't feel sure about the date until he had the certificate of occupancy in his hand.

Ms Murphy said the delays had put a dent in the Chop Shop's Kickstarter fund.

"It was an anxiety-filled three weeks, just the unknown, not having concrete dates and not being able to tell our customers and clients what the situation was," she said.

She and Mr Rose said they had received support from their Kickstarter fans and from Chief Minister Katy Gallagher, Deputy Chief Miinster Andrew Barr and Planning Minister Mick Gentleman.✓.

Mr Rose also described Gary Rake, deputy director-general of the economic development directorate, as a hero who had offered help and understanding of the project.

But Mr Rake was modest.

"I'm just a community servant trying to help. That's what I'm supposed to do," he said. "While we hit a few hurdles early, EPD [the Environmental and Planning Directorate, which also includes the ACT Planning and Land Authority] have also helped find solutions and we seem to be on a good path now."

The Chop Shop, which is hidden down an alleyway next to Lonsdale Street Traders, is set to host skateboarding, live music and art, a bar, and a gallery until the end of the year, when the workshop will be torn down to make way for apartments.

Mr Rose said the delay in opening had forced "three or four really good acts" to drop out of the calendar of events but Ms Murphy said not much had been lost.

"The delays ate into about one month's worth of the calendar so we've had to push events back," she said.

"We've had maybe 5 per cent drop out ... that in effect freed us to rearrange some time in the calendar so some earlier acts won't miss out."