Fletcher Building unite in new 'hub' at former Carisbrook site

Fletcher Building will occupy a development planned for the former sports ground. Photo / Mark Mitchell.

Three branches of the Fletcher Building group will come together when 30 staff relocate to a new business ''hub'' at the former Carisbrook site in South Dunedin.

The companies - Fletcher Reinforcing, Easysteel and Dimond - were yesterday confirmed as the tenants set to occupy a large industrial warehouse and office development planned for the former sports ground.

The three companies are offshoots of Steel Distribution, itself part of the Fletcher group, and already had a presence in Dunedin, employing 30 staff spread across two premises.

Steel Distribution general manager Hamish McBeath in a statement said the move would bring the companies' existing Dunedin staff, manufacturing and distribution efforts under one roof.

Fletcher's investment in the facility would include a multi-year lease and an additional $1 million of new equipment, he said.

''The facility is designed to support business efficiencies and best practice health and safety procedures.

''We're looking forward to bringing together the 30 employees spread across our two current sites,'' he said.

Confirmation of the site's first tenants came after the Otago Daily Times last month reported Calder Stewart was seeking non-notified consent for stage one of the site's redevelopment.

That would result in a single-storey, 3875sqm industrial warehouse, 302sqm office and yard built on one corner of the site, extending northeast from the Burns and Neville Sts intersection.

Once the ''anchor'' tenants were in place, attention shifted to the development of the rest of the site, a Ryder Consultants report, for Calder Stewart said.

Construction of the new facility was expected to begin later this year, although it was not yet clear it would be completed.

Calder Stewart bought the old ground from the council for $3.5 million in 2013 and demolished most of the old stadium later that year, leaving only the historic Neville St turnstile building.

The new office would overlook the turnstile building, which the council planned to make the centrepiece of a pocket park.