Nearly a century after the 1915 Jacob Jabez Burns coffee roaster was removed from the former Gregg’s factory in Fryatt St, a Dunedin property developer has managed to reunite it with the building.
Russell Lund is turning the building into an apartment complex called Thomas Gregg Apartments.
As part of the development, he approached Cerebos Gregg’s and asked if the present factory in Forth St had any artefacts or bold historical items that he could use to "play up the historic connection" between the company and the former Gregg’s factory.
"It was one of those rare moments that you get in life," he said.
"They just said very casually, ‘We’ve got the old roaster here’."
The machine operated in the Fryatt St building until the factory was moved in 1925.
Gregg’s kept the machine and used it in the Forth St factory right up until 2011, when it was retired and replaced.
The company restored it and had planned to put it in the foyer of the Cerebos Gregg’s building in Forth St. But it was too big to fit, Mr Lund said.
"So they asked, ‘Would you like it?’
"I could not believe my luck."
He said he answered with a resounding "yes".
The roaster is now on loan to him for perpetuity, as long as it is not turned on.
He was delighted with the acquisition and said the lobby in his development had been designed around the machine.
"It can’t come out now. It’s glassed in. It’s the centrepiece of the whole building."
The bespoke apartments were expected to be complete by the end of this month, he said.
