Keeping a piece of Dunedin’s heritage: Waters Street

Do you like inner city living with a bit of character? Then this site will interest you. We have bought the former Trustees Executors building on Waters Street and we are transforming it into seven apartments.

Former Trustees Executor building on Waters Street

Building front of former Trustees Executor building.

According to the Dunedin City Development History Map this building was built in 1868, originally built for George Grey Russell and Co. (which became Russell Richie and Co in 1875). The Trustees Executors were calling this building home by 1906, and they stayed until 2023. The building was refurbished in the 1930s and has undergone very little change since. Two aspects of this building are protected, the exterior and the gorgeous wooden vestibule.

We didn’t want to see this beautiful building be neglected, but we realise that the modern office environment is different to what they had in the 1860s. So, we are working with the DCC heritage advisors and planners, as well as Dunedin architects and engineers, to transform this into seven apartments (one three bed, two two-bed and four one-bed). We want to keep as many of the original features of this building as we can, not just the protected ones. This means that these apartments are going to have character.

This building is not without its challenges, which is just the way we like it. We had hoped to be able to get off-street carparking in the basement, but that isn’t going to work due to height and access issues. So instead, each apartment is going to have a considerable amount of extra storage in the basement.

We have obtained Resource Consent for this project. It is now sitting with the architects and engineers to develop plans for earthquake strengthen the building and to design the new apartments.