Three years after the plan was announced, a house was demolished on the Esplanade on Thursday in readiness for the building of the four-storey apartment with ground-floor garaging.
The project will cost an estimated $5.5 million to $7 million.
The co-directors of St Clair Esplanade Ltd, former Dunedin couple Rebecca Tohill and Grant Henderson, now of Wellington, have been seeking "expressions of interest" for the development for the past three years.
The spokeswoman for the pair, real estate agent Elizabeth McKewen, said the first-floor apartments would both have two bedrooms, the larger for sale at $799,000 and other for $749,000.
The second-floor, 162sq m, three-bedroom apartment, featuring a deck covering almost 80sq m, is for sale for $1.6 million, while the owners will retain the top storey, three-bedroom apartment.
Rezoning of the Esplanade block in recent years allows up to a maximum 11m building height.
Resource consent for the apartments had been gained and Naylor Love will be building it, with expectations it will be finished in about a year.
