Street improvements under way for the redeveloped warehouses and other commercial buildings in the heritage precinct, including new light stands, plantings and protrusions — photographed last Saturday (14.6.14). Highly coloured seats and rubbish bins have yet to be installed. Read more about the project here.
Click map to enlarge.
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Bike stands and a light stand outside Queens Gardens House, cnr Rattray Street:
Light stand outside Phoenix House (45 Queens Gardens):
Looking south from Phoenix House along the west side of Vogel Street:
Looking north from Phoenix House to Queens Gardens:
Former NMA buildings (note badly scaled and positioned sign):
Landscaping and protrusions for safe crossing:
Other views (including the former Donald Reid Store at 77 Vogel Street):
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Warehouse Precinct Revitalisation Plan (PDF, 3.6 MB)
This Plan seeks to support the revitalisation to ensure the important historic Warehouse Precinct area becomes a vibrant and successful part of the central city, once again.
Dunedin Warehouse Precinct by Alexander Trapeznik, 2014, 188 pages with map and illustrations (PDF, 9.91MB)
Dunedin’s warehouse district is a newly rediscovered treasure. Spanning the few blocks stretching from the harbour-side to Princes Street, from Queens Gardens to the Oval, for many years this area slipped out of the public eye. The grid-pattern street layout contains a dense mixture of commercial and industrial buildings, typically between two and four storeys high. Many have a decorative façade to the street and plain brick or masonry walls facing their neighbours. Some became derelict, others home to a variety of uses. A few have been demolished to create car parks. Recently, many of the buildings have become the subject of renewed enthusiasm, being strengthened, refurbished, repainted and valued once again. –Trapeznik
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Post and images by Elizabeth Kerr
What if? Dunedin... 
Beautification project next to a long-term “For Lease” sign sums up Dunedin at present…
It does. I can’t help thinking the general city’s lack of practical concentration on building businesses for export (domestic and global) sees little projects like this as cart before the horse.
As you know Some new tenants are export led. It SERIOUSLY DOES matter to the Dunedin, Otago and New Zealand economies (they are not divorced) that we are concentrating hard on export – or do you prefer to go down the frigging gurgler, Peter. And note, export is exactly what led to the construction of the old stores and commercial buildings in the first place! And by hokey, lad, the New Zealand economy is still propped up by export led initiative. So stuff that up your Made in China jumper.
Export orientated businesses may be better, if they locate there, but otherwise…….? Sometimes beggars, like Dunedin, can’t be choosers.
I think this is a great development. Any beautification is a start that creates confidence for viable businesses to move in. Whether they are export orientated or not, who cares? Clearly change is happening here and let’s hope this end of town lives to see another day.
“Where are all the people, oh where have they gone, They’ve gone to other places, oh why have they gone? They’ve gone to where the business is, long time ago. Oh why did they go? Long time passing, and long time gone. When will they ever return, oh when will they ever return?
Spending on debt-funded street improvements with no return to ratepayers is a Daaave Cull pearl-wearing exercise. It’s terribly nice, but curb protrusions don’t mean anyone will fly into Dunedin much. The city in its sloppy way doesn’t have the scale to inspire or capitalise on to diversify because local business leaders and the council fail to recognise that survival is tied to taking leadership of Otago Southland production… but too late, Queenstown is envisioned to become the country’s fifth city.
The Oamaru warehouse district seems to be going very nicely by all accounts and Oamaru is smaller than Dunedin by a fair margin.
I much prefer this kind of sympathetic development than the kind preferred by that Jing Song. The private sector is there and there is no harm in the city council encouraging them to stay by doing stuff that may well be decorative, but has spin-offs.
People do naturally gravitate to areas that are rejuvenating in one form or another.
Another complete planning disaster that idea.
Our first city lies in the centre of 9 volcanoes last active ONLY 19th century. Our politicians’ capital is built hanging over the most likely major earthquake faultline. The third city is built on a swamp, backed up by 6 earthquakes significant enough to shatter the cathedral spire including two recently of major consequences. Queenstown is not big enough to expand beyond Jacks Point, Glenorchy maybe, the bunjy and no further, the only towns capable of real expansion in New Zealand are: in the South Island – Timaru, Invercargill and, in Cantral Otago, Wanaka; and in the North Island – Napier, Hastings, New Plymouth, Hamilton and Tauranga, with Te Puke in the north. The rest are accidents waiting to happen.
I was down in Vogel Street for a couple of hours in the late afternoon waiting for change in light conditions at dusk. There was another person milling about like me talking on cell phone, one skateboarder, a group of men talking momentarily beside their cars before taking off, another female photographer (a student), and well, no-one else except the infrequent car going through, and no cyclists. This was Saturday of “The Test” at Fubar, so Vogel Street and the warehouse precinct weren’t exactly a tourism drawcard to city visitors, not the yellow brick road to stadium. Flat and apartment dwellers there were probably ready to huddle up to their flatscreens for the game. Let’s say they weren’t exiting their premises at all.
To be fair, t’is winter and this rejuvenation is in its infancy.
Such dichotomy here. Perfectly crafted shots of quartier Vogel, peaceful mercantilism framed in montage with yellow dot vanishing perspective THEN, well, rather disappointing negates in comment. Consider yeselves lucky. We had a Volga Street in Wgtn, with a Vulgar Boatman.
Only you could craft that so correctly! :P
Steve Macknight wrote a good letter to the editor a few days ago about the leasehold hindrance to investment and development. Will hunt it out.
It’s been a while, but obviously the tactile paving stones at pedestrian crossings have changed in recent times. The dimples used to be offset in rows so that there was only a clear path between them when you were facing the crossing and not when you were at right angles to the crossing. Might have been the other way around, but I always thought it was a much more helpful design to have a clear distinction for those reliant on touch. Most likely more expensive to manufacture. I only recall the earlier design because there was an occasion when a DCC contractor installed them 90 degrees out and had to relay them. Trivia of the Day.
### ODT Online Fri, 25 Jul 2014
Port Otago land debate heated
By Simon Hartley
Tempers flared at an Otago Regional Council (ORC) finance committee meeting yesterday as councillors debated whether its policies were clear enough for Port Otago’s selling of its leasehold land parcels. Port Otago’s widespread Dunedin land holdings have been a bone of contention for decades, with businesses and developers critical that not enough was on offer to promote expansion, or any land was too expensive. Councillor Gerry Eckhoff immediately kicked into the meeting with claims the council should be adopting a more ”social” aspect to its policies over the land sales, as opposed to a corporate outlook, saying a developer said Port Otago’s ”pricing was excessive” for its land.
Read more
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### ODT Online Fri, 25 Jul 2014
Lower range of dividends to ORC proposed
By Simon Hartley
Port Otago has changed its dividend policy in relation to its 100% owner, the Otago Regional Council, in part to underpin future capital expenditure, including funding for its ”inland port” at Mosgiel. […] The company is also in negotiations with an unnamed party to build another multimillion-dollar warehouse at Sawyers Bay […] Since 1988, the ORC has received almost $130 million in dividends from Port Otago. Port Otago wants to amend the present policy of delivering 70% to 80% of the group’s operating surplus after tax towards the dividend payment, down to 50% to 70%.
Read more
Stephen Macknight nails it, the problem in Dunedin is leasehold industrial land being overvalued with the owners (both the DCC and the ORC) believing in, and standing fast on those values. Perhaps some of the fault lies with the valuation profession. We saw two graphic examples, both involving the DCC. The land acquired for the Stadium was assessed at some $15 million in the original exercise on the feasibility of the project. The upset price was around $36.5 million, offset in part by a portion being on-sold to the University of Otago and the balance being subsidised by central government’s $15 million. Question is, who arrived at those values and why were those prices paid? Private capital certainly wouldn’t have. The other example is the valuation sought by the DCC which resulted in it paying $7 million to the ORFU for Carisbrook. A patently absurd price as subsequent events proved. Out of all of this we get this huge distortion of thought on the part of the ORC’s Chalmers Properties, the largest owner of leasehold industrial land in Dunedin. As Mr Macknight says, it becomes a choke on development of Dunedin business. This was a concern also expressed by property investor Alistair Broad recently. Would the two councils but see the folly in their arguments.
Calvin, not just ORC (via POL’s property subsidiary Chalmers Properties) and DCC, but also Earl Hagaman of Christchurch who has large holdings of land purchased from the former Otago Harbour Board. He had fingers into the stadium land purchases (aided by Mr McLauchlan’s early information service…), he problematised life for Otago Polytechnic (who then sensibly retreated to their own land to raise development), and there he is with the likes of Tony Clear and Co making life interesting for south of Rattray St, in particular.
Yes I heard he owns a great deal of property south of Rattray St. Is there any ~coincidence~ re the push to tart up that “precinct”? Rolling out the standard poshness pattern again, road narrowing/curb protrusions taking out car parks, and fussy tiles that lie in wait for a chance to rise or sink and catch some unwary pedestrian’s heel, with extra points for causing a fracture in an elderly person.
Oh lookie, a DCC media release (4 July 2014):
Street Lighting Upgrade on the Way
New generation LED street lighting has just been installed in the Vogel Street/Water Street area as part of the warehouse precinct upgrade.
DCC Roading Maintenance Engineer Peter Standring says this form of lighting is Dunedin’s first taste of technology that will most likely be rolled out across the whole city, as it looks to upgrade its stock of street lights in the next few years. Mr Standring says changing the lighting will cost $6 million, but savings in energy and maintenance costs mean the lights will pay for themselves in five years. Mr Standring says if people want to get a feel for how the new lights will look and the sort of lighting they will provide, they have replaced ten lighting units in the Water St/ Vogel Street area.
Read more
### dunedintv.co.nz July 4, 2014 – 7:19pm
Energy efficient street lighting announced
The Dunedin City Council has announced it will spend about $6m changing the city’s street lighting.
Video
### ODT Online Tue, 8 Jul 2014
An enlightened move
Dunedin’s warehouse precinct is the first to get a taste of new technology set to light the city. As part of an upgrade of the area, the Dunedin City Council has installed 10 LED street lights in Water and Vogel Sts.
Read more
SST Sun, 9 Nov 2014 (page A11) [click to enlarge]
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Related Comments:
21.1.13 Mike https://dunedinstadium.wordpress.com/2013/01/16/dcc-draft-annual-plan-201314-aaron-hawkins-on-the-money/#comment-30699
21.1.13 Elizabeth https://dunedinstadium.wordpress.com/2013/01/16/dcc-draft-annual-plan-201314-aaron-hawkins-on-the-money/#comment-30700
Heritage building owner Stephen Macknight is in negotiations over the future of the former Gresham Hotel building, currently owned by Peter Laing.
http://www.odt.co.nz/news/dunedin/313002/negotiations-over-gresham-building
### dunedintv.co.nz September 2, 2014 – 6:00pm
New seating for the precinct district unveiled
Dunedin’s ongoing warehouse precinct revitalisation project has passed another milestone. New seating commissioned by the Dunedin City Council for the area has been unveiled. But the newest additions to the precinct contain some secrets.
Video
### ODT Online Fri, 5 Sep 2014
Street furniture a link to the past and future
By Debbie Porteous
This brief moment in time has been immortalised inside plastic inside bespoke seats installed this week in Dunedin’s historic warehouse precinct. Otago Polytechnic design studio workSpace was commissioned to craft the series of unusual seats in Vogel St. The seats, and four stools to be installed next to them, cost a total of $49,600, which came from a $580,000 council budget for amenity improvements to the area.
Read more
The fine art of DCC STEALTH.
Members of the public were asked if they wanted cycleways (in much the same way they were asked ‘did they want a stadium’….). They weren’t strongly consulted by Council on the multimillion-dollar costs or the disruptions and implications for the roading network, private property owners/long-term renters, businesses and institutions before the cycle network scheme began, and certainly not in relation to the FRIGHTFULLY few cyclists at Dunedin.
Vogel St, from Police St to Gordon St, will be turned into a ”quiet street”….
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\### ODT Online Thu, 11 Sep 2014
Vogel St work next for cycling network
By Debbie Porteous
Trucks and diggers will roll into the southern part of Vogel St in central Dunedin this month, as the controversial multimillion-dollar South Dunedin cycle network continues to expand. The second stage of the network, costing about $1.3 million in total, will be built on 12 southern Dunedin streets over the next five months, starting in Vogel St on September 22. The other streets through which the routes will pass include Coughtrey, Richardson, Bellona, Fingall and Tedder Sts, Wilkie Rd and around the Oval in Princes St.
Read more
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Famous last words from DCC plonkers:
Oh yeah, ratepayers forced to fork out for (thin air, apart from the hardware!) light projection and designs submitted by one of the acting urban design team leader’s ‘circle’… Conflict of interest, again? Of course, not merely perceived. It’s the way the world flies at DCC.
Spending in the warehouse precinct is only relevant to a very few privileged people who own or work in buildings there, they’re good enthusiastic people. But, the only good thing about the area, for the long term, is simply the money put into building strengthening and redevelopment, attracting well-performing tenants. Short term, expensive amenity improvements worth over half a million dollars are simply not essential. A luxury, with a very few people inside and outside DCC still thinking to use DCC as their Private Bank.
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### ODT Online Sun, 5 Oct 2014
Street art only shines at night
By Debbie Porteous
Last month the historic [Vogel] street, which has been the focus of rejuvenation efforts by the Dunedin City Council and private investors, received the city’s first lot of new LED street lights, This month three special lighting scenes are decorating the street’s footpaths. The images are created by ”gobos” – 4cm-wide laser-cut metal stencils through which a small projector beams light.
Read more
Does anyone give a flying farnarkle about all this blasted street decor, other than being annoyed by the corner bunions that make it necessary to get right out into the stream of traffic even when there’s a parking place right on the corner that one could have turned straight into without getting in anyone’s way? And little outbursts of pointless paving hither and yon, after weeks of contractors and orange cones getting in one’s way? And knowing that all those and now the light show are coming out of a budget that’s firmly in the red and unlikely to see black ink for a very long time…. actually there are probably a great many people who give flying, walking, cycling and bleeped-out farnarkles along the lines of “Holy fark, isn’t there anyone with a BRAIN in charge around here?”
With bells on.
Companions CNZM
Michael Crawfurd Macknight, Dunedin, services to science. ODT Link
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### ODT Online Mon, 1 Jun 2015
Dunedin | Queen’s Birthday Honours
Good team credited
By Dene Mackenzie
When Michael Macknight is asked why he runs a worldwide business from Dunedin, he replies why not? And his efforts in establishing ADInstruments in the city and growing its products, which are now trusted by more than 10,000 medical related organisations around the world, have now been recognised. He has been made a companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit.
Read more
● The Dunedin offices for ADInstruments are located in the Vogel Street Heritage Precinct.
Otago Daily Times Published on Jul 14, 2015
Law firm moving to warehouse precinct
Dunedin’s historic warehouse precinct has been given another boost with Gallaway Cook Allan confirming it will move into a vacant part of the Dalgety and Co building in Vogel St.
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### ODT Online Wed, 15 Jul 2015
Law firm moving to warehouse precinct
By Damian George
Dunedin’s historic warehouse precinct has been given another boost with Gallaway Cook Allan confirming it will move into a vacant part of the Dalgety and Co building in Vogel St. The 60-person law firm, with 50 Dunedin employees, is set to occupy the top floor of the warehouse from the end of next year.
Read more + Images
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█ Read Dunedin’s Warehouse Precinct by Alexander Trapeznik at http://www.genrebooks.co.nz/ebooks/DunedinsWarehousePrecinct.pdf