When Dylan Cazemier returned to Dunedin in 2017, the idea was to develop the ambitious EBB-Dunedin hotel project, get it up and running and then return to Sydney.
But Mosgiel-raised Mr Cazemier (30) discovered that he enjoyed living in the city — which he described as one of New Zealand’s great small cities — and decided to stay.
Other friends of a similar age, who had also previously left Dunedin and lived around the world, had now "done their dash" and were returning to the city to live, bringing their global thinking with them, he said.
His own plan was to keep making interesting buildings that had a purpose and a place, fulfilled a need in the city and inspired people, while embracing sustainability principles.
A desire to create businesses was wired in Mr Cazemier from a young age. His parents were both entrepreneurial, through various business ventures, and creating businesses seemed like a fun thing to do for the Mosgiel-raised lad.
Acknowledging he was probably "not super engaged" during his secondary schooling at John McGlashan College, his preference at that stage was for surfing and snowboarding.
But Mr Cazemier followed his interest and completed a commerce degree at the University of Otago, mostly in management and marketing, with a focus on new business creation.
From there, he had a desire to see the world and went travelling, ending up in South America, where he got a job at a start-up in Chile which was trying to find finance for renewable energy projects.
With his own interest in sustainability and finance, it was the "perfect job" for a commerce graduate, who got to be at the leading edge of creating a new business.
After deciding that he did not see a life long-term in Chile, Mr Cazemier resigned and moved to Australia to do a masters of property development, focusing on mass timber, a far more sustainable alternative to concrete, he said.
He worked for two different developers, including a multinational developer who was working on large-scale developments and also towards ambitious sustainability goals. It was an idyllic lifestyle for a young man, in his mid-20s, who could surf at Manly in the morning before work.
Back in Otago, his family had been working on student property investments and they were not sure whether they were going to push that further.
It was decided to do one last project through their family property investment group CL Hotels, using knowledge and skills Dylan had learned in Sydney and would now apply in a Dunedin context.
Out went residential student accommodation and in came the ambitious EBB-Dunedin hotel development in Filleul St which, since opening last year, has won a host of national accolades.
Mr Cazemier, the co-founder and development manager behind the project, said it came down to choosing the right people to work with to achieve the vision of a design-led luxury boutique hotel.
Dunedin-based Gary Todd Architecture was selected to design what was originally going to be a motel, but the design kept being pushed "further and further".
The work Mr Cazemier had been doing in Sydney was design-led, and he wanted an experience for people.
He saw a gap in the market for bespoke accommodation which had a narrative built into it, telling stories about Dunedin, and creating the feel of a neighbourhood hotel.
Admitting it was an ambitious venture, he said there were times when he would lie in bed at night thinking "hopefully it works".
A large investment was involved, but he was also conscious of the need to "back your thinking" and he spent a lot of time running financial models.
The road to opening the doors was bumpy; the site was bought in 2017 and design work and obtaining building consent followed.
Foundations started at the same time the world found out about Covid-19 but the project, at that stage, was at the point of "no return".
Its design recently won both the Sir Miles Warren award for commercial architecture and the New Zealand Architecture Award at the Te Kahui Whaihanga New Zealand Architecture Awards
Mr Cazemier was "immensely proud" of the hotel, saying it was probably even more than what he imagined. "I come down here most days for lunch just to hang out in the space."
With its unconventional design, which included a leafy central atrium from which rooms branched out, it mirrored what was happening in hotel spaces overseas, where hotels were seen as "more than just a bed".
For travel these days, people also wanted to be careful where they spent their money, and were after a deeper level of experience. Being acknowledged with awards was "just the cherry on top".
Last year, the Sir Miles Warren award was won by the Britomart hotel in Auckland, which was an "amazing" hotel.
To create a building in Dunedin which was just as special as those in the country’s largest city, was rewarding, he said.
It also showed that those in the South knew about good design and hospitality experiences.
Mr Cazemier particularly liked that it was "mysterious on the outside"; passers-by were unaware of what was behind the street-facing glass facade.
His focus was now on Hanover Place, an apartment complex planned for the centre city, just a stone’s throw from the hotel, again creating something that was "not cookie cutter".
While enjoying a coffee in the EBB-Dunedin cafe, Mr Cazemier outlined the plans for Hanover Place, which was this time being created through his own company, Otherplaces, and involved a group of like-minded investors with an interest in property development and design.
Cities around the world, even small cities in Europe, had apartment living in the centre of the city, but, in Dunedin, it was "not really a big thing".
But not everybody wanted the oft-lauded quarter-acre dream, to be having to mow lawns and weed gardens, and there was demand, he believed, for well-designed apartments.
He hoped Hanover Place would be an example of what sustainable apartment design could look like in New Zealand.
Led by design collective Ahha, the plan comprised energy-efficient, fossil-fuel-free operations, low carbon construction and material re-use.
One of the biggest struggles in the move towards a lower carbon economy was the construction sector; building with wood "makes a lot of sense", he said.
There was also a social side of the development; how to create encounters between the residents of the 16 apartments and provide space to create a sense of community.
The site, at the corner of Filleul and Hanover Sts, was bought in July last year. Resource consent was granted in May and sales were launched about six weeks ago.
"I’m not a very animated person but I’m excited. It’s a new thing, it’ll be a special build," Mr Cazemier said.
It would be different from EBB-Dunedin; it had its own unique narrative through sustainability and inspiration from other buildings in the city and he hoped it could demonstrate what good apartment living could look like in Dunedin.
Dunedin’s CBD was a place where people could live, work and play and there was "space for everybody". He was in favour of the George St upgrade and believed the city had an interesting future, with "lots of very exciting stuff" coming up.
Ahha director Campbell McNeill said the design collective was "totally into bringing more life to the city" and working on a project like Hanover Place helped contribute to that. "There are plenty of examples around the world of how successful it is," he said.
It was good to see the opportunities to start exploring some good outcomes in Dunedin and it tied in with Ahha’s ethos.
Working out of both Auckland and Dunedin, it was set up to explore outcomes from a social, environmental and economical point of view.
Having grown up in the city, and returning to live in Dunedin nearly four years ago, Mr McNeill said it was nice to start exploring what contemporary buildings looked like in relation to the city’s European heritage and masonry aesthetics.
It was a privilege to work with mass timber, a product which he believed was "super important" for the future of construction.
It was also exciting to see a lot of big projects going on in Dunedin and hopefully that might trickle into more interesting private sector work, he said.
