A Helensburgh family looks to leave Dunedin a lasting legacy

A purchase of land at Wakari Road during the Covid 19 Lockdown has blossomed into a legacy project for a Dunedin family and their 150-year connection to the Helensburgh area.

Developer Marc Bretherton says the family-run residential Flagstaff subdivision project on the outskirts of the city was not always a sure thing.

The land, when purchased, had no development rights but Mr Bretherton says the family took “an educated guess” that the site, with views over the city, from Mt Cargill to the north over the Harbour and Otago Peninsula and out to sea, was suitable for rezoning - and it was.

“It's land that we purchased back in 2020 in the Covid lockdown even. And my uncle, who's one of our shareholders and a director, it was his brainchild, he saw the land. He thought if he can't do anything with it because it had no development rights whatsoever at the time, he would just build his retirement home up there.”

Mr Bretherton said the first stage of the development has already seen half of the 36 residential lots available in stage 1 sold, inside three months.

“We’re anticipating that we're going to have the successful civil contractor appointed and established on site this side of Christmas and we'll be full noise into construction very early in the new year and we'll have titles issued, giving people the ability to start building houses next spring.”

It is still to be determined when the remaining stages would be developed on the 10ha site.

The development was a legacy-project for the family and one that had brought them closer together.

“We kind of bring, as a family, quite a lot of complementary skills to the project. We've got partners who are in real estate and construction, building and development. So we've kind of got most of the necessary attributes kind of wrapped up between us as a family, which is really good and a lot of fun.

“Our family goes back five generations in the Wakari / Helensburgh area,” developer Marc Bretherton says.

“My great grandmother was first dux at Wakari School in the late 1800s and my grandfather - a grocer - built and ran the shops on the corner of Taieri / Helensburgh Road for many years following World War Two . This was known as Bretherton's Corner for anyone coming up from the city on the bus for quite a few decades. 

“I myself grew up in a house only a few hundred metres from our Flagstaff site, and many of my cousins still live locally.

“It's a legacy project for us, and one we are very proud of. 

“It's also the single largest development that has been proposed in the inner Dunedin suburbs in generations - only 10-minutes from the university and the Octagon.” 

Mr Bretherton said people could expect to see lots of activity on the site from today and over the Labour Day weekend, with open days being held on the site.

Main image (Supplied): The view from the Flagstaff residential development at Wakari Road.