Kmart's size 'will surprise'

Otago Land Group Ltd director Martin Dippie admires the bright colours of a section of the new staff quarters on the second floor of the Kmart Dunedin building. The second floor contains numerous staff rooms, staff toilets, office spaces and meeting...

The exterior of the new Kmart Dunedin store in Anderson’s Bay Road, South Dunedin. PHOTO: PETER MCINTOSH

Contractors raise themselves towards the ceiling to work on the overhead lighting in a ground floor storage space of the Kmart Dunedin building. PHOTO: PETER MCINTOSH

Supplies and machinery are laid out across the 4000sqm ground floor retail space of the Kmart Dunedin building. PHOTO: PETER MCINTOSH

Contractors lay a cota of grey paint along the concrete flooring of a newly expanded section of the Kmart Dunedin building. Concrete panels were removed from between the concrete columns, which mark the original building line. PHOTO: PETER MCINTOSH

Contractors get to work on an indoor storage space next to a stairwell leading to the second floor of the Kmart Dunedin building. PHOTO: PETER MCINTOSH

Customers will be "surprised at the size" of Kmart Dunedin once the nearly four-year wait is over, the store’s developer says.

Work on Kmart’s new Dunedin store, in Andersons Bay Rd, is in full swing as the building draws ever closer to completion.

Otago Land Group Ltd owner and director Martin Dippie, who is developing the site, took the Otago Daily Times on a guided tour of the work site yesterday.

Mr Dippie estimated the building was about 85% completed, and there was still another couple of months of work remaining before it would be handed off to Kmart to stock shelves.

Work on the building had been progressing smoothly and Kmart had been extremely good to work for as they had "really wanted" the South Dunedin location.

"Without question we’re proud of it and I think it is going to be a great addition to Mitre 10, the wider precinct, The Warehouse and Pak’nSave," he said.

"To me it’s without doubt in the right location."

All the foundational and earthquake-strengthening work had been completed and all the original slabs and steel of the Smiths City building had been reused, he said.

The building’s original frame had been earthquake-strengthened and a new external wall had been added.

Concrete panels that comprised the original building line had been removed to make space for the 1000sq m expansion, while retaining the original concrete columns.

Otago Land Group Ltd director Martin Dippie stands on the retail floor of the soon-to-be-completed Kmart Dunedin store, in Andersons Bay Rd. PHOTO: PETER MCINTOSH

The retail space had expanded to 4000sq m, which along with the inwards goods area brought the building’s total footprint to 5200sq m, he said.

An overhanging feature ceiling, found in every Kmart store, would stretch out from above the entranceway and two lifts weighing four tonnes each would shift stock between the store’s two storeys.

Since it traded at night, Mr Dippie said the store would really change the South Dunedin area and attract "an awful lot of customers".

Otago Land Group Ltd had built the site as its long-term landowners, having bought it in 1995 when it housed a school, he said.

The site had gone on to house a Mitre 10 store as well as Smiths City. Kmart is the next occupant "rebirthing" the land.

"People will be surprised at the size of the space.

"That will be of interest when it’s full of Kmart stock. There are going to be some very excited people in the region."

tim.scott@odt.co.nz