A Dunedin City Council consent hearings committee of Crs Andrew Noone, Lee Vandervis and Andrew Whiley granted a land use consent for 25 apartments to be built at 97 Filleul St.
Property co-developer Neil Lyons said he was "very happy'' the consent had been granted.
"Some of the neighbours did cause an issue but basically, the council and the hearings panel saw through those objections and discounted most of them, if not all of them.''
Mr Lyons said he was happy with the consent being granted subject to conditions.
A condition was to paint a wall of the block a light colour to allow a "greater reflection of light'' to the dental workers at London Street Specialists, next door in Vero House.
Chris Robertson, co-owner of Vero House and London Street Specialists at 34 London St, said he had not read the decision but would seek legal advice and investigate his right of appeal to the Environment Court.
"It's certainly not over.''
The planned build would put a wall 3m from a window of his business in Vero House and the shading and quality of light would affect his practice.
"If it [the apartment block] wasn't so big we wouldn't have a problem with it but it's huge.''
Lincoln Darling, owner of the villa at 95 Filleul St, made a submission opposing the build because of concerns with a lack of soil stability testing on the site.
A development at 93 Filleul St created issues with land stability, Mr Darling said in a submission.
He was concerned for the business in the villa - Bracken Restaurant - and the disruption the construction would cause.
He asked for improved communication between the developer and the neighbouring properties.
Mr Lyons said a consent condition required a peer-reviewed geotechnical report to address the concerns about site stability during construction and to liaise with neighbours on construction.
The apartments were planned to be completed by "mid-next year''.
One of the 15 one-bedroom apartments would cost about $300,000 and one of the 10 two-bedroom apartments would cost more than $500,000, Mr Lyons said.
The apartment pre-sales started yesterday and tenders from building contractors were being sought, he said.
The project was a positive for the inner city, he said.
Co-developer and project architect Michael Ovens said one of the main issues of the consent was the interpretation of height.
"If you have an 11m-deep basement in your building, you can't go any higher without resource consent - that was something that was thrown at us that city council have to get right.''
About half of the building site had been vacant land long-term and the construction was positive for the inner city, he said.
"We have had to employ extra planners and lawyers to fight for this thing. It was a fight we shouldn't have had to go so deeply into ... it's been democratic but it shouldn't have been so difficult,'' Mr Ovens said.
He hoped the second generation district plan would "iron out'' the problems the project team faced and allow developers to build beyond the 11m height restriction, up to 16m.
The developers could not state the height of the tallest wall in the consented building plan but noted other buildings in Filleul St were higher than 11m.
