Community Care Trust chief executive Mike Brummitt said the trust — whose services include providing support for people with intellectual disabilities and those on the autism spectrum in Otago, Southland and Christchurch — was keen to keep its base in the South Dunedin area.
It employs about 350 people in Dunedin.
"We are delighted to be staying where we are," Mr Brummitt said.
The Dunedin City Council bought the site at the corner of King Edward St and Macandrew Rd in 2019 and had planned to turn it into a library and community centre.
Two major tenants, Veggie Boys and Para Rubber, left in 2020, but efforts to find a new home for the Community Care Trust failed and it was disclosed last year the library build would start after expiry of the trust’s lease in January 2025.
Last week, the city council announced the South Dunedin library and community complex would instead be built at the old Wolfenden and Russell site, 138-156 King Edward St, after a deal was reached with Positive Property Ltd.
Ruth Graham, daughter of the late library campaigner Anne Turvey, was another person pleased about the news, saying it was a good outcome all round.
"I believe my mother would have approved," she said.
"I have a memory of going with her to shop at Wolfenden and Russell as a child.
"I’ll be looking forward to seeing the new complex finished sooner than originally anticipated."
The council has yet to determine what it will do with the property at the intersection of King Edward St and Macandrew Rd, if it retains it.
The change in direction for the library project came after Positive Property approached the council in May.
Councillors considered the proposal in June and authorised a total project cost of up to $22 million plus GST.
This is a combined figure for land, the shell of a building to be constructed and the estimated cost of fit-out.
The project had been estimated to be headed for a cost of $28.9m at its previous site, a council spokesman said.
Asked about sunk costs, the council said they added up to $958,000, comprising preliminary designs, site-specific investigations, building and resource consent planning, project management and quantity surveying, and lease surrender payments.
Concept work and outcomes of consultation were elements that would carry over to the new site.
Despite project savings, an overspend had to be authorised, because the council had budgeted $11.56m for it in its 2021-31 long-term plan.
Title to the land would transfer early in the process, before the start of construction, and the council would take possession of the site when the building had been completed, the council spokesman said.
The council decided in the public-excluded part of its June 27 meeting to proceed "with a new complex in South Dunedin" and the vote was unanimous.
Crs Lee Vandervis and Jim O’Malley submitted apologies for the meeting.
