Paul H 

This is an inspiring story from Ōtepoti of how you can combine preserving colonial heritage buildings, and provide good for the community at the same time. As always, when different and disparate groups work together, wonderful things can be achieved.

"A husband and wife team, heritage building developer Russell Lund and artist Suzanne Lund, have owned the 19th century Dunedin waterfront property for 26 years.

They partnered with The Salvation Army for the imaginative project, which opened in June 2024 to help meet high demand for affordable housing in the city."

From the Daily Encourager.

#Ōtepoti #GoodThing

https://dailyencourager.co.nz/housing-heritage-with-heart/

Housing heritage with heart

The Suzanne Lund Community Loft Apartments offer a heritage of 'social housing with heart' for people needing a long-term home. About 40 tenants live in this specially-converted Victorian warehouse, with one describing it as “extremely warm” and “like a five-star hotel”. There are 28 beautifully-furnished studio apartments, one two-bedroom unit and one three-bedroom unit. Builder Ryan Muir and his team have begun work on an additional 11 ground floor studio units, which should be available in 2026. A husband and wife team, heritage building developer Russell Lund and artist Suzanne Lund, have owned the 19th century Dunedin waterfront property for

Daily Encourager
Oct 23, 2025 at 9:57pmWeb
Show threadBigDOct 23, 2025
@paulhellyer What a fantastic effort and outcome for people needing housing and the community aspects included in how this couple have gone about it.
The preservation of the building and repurposing for housing within the city is beyond admirable of the couple that had vision.
Every city and town has buildings sitting empty, that could be transformed in similar ways.
Certainly an inspiring outcome proven here.
Hopefully some newly elected councilors will read this story and look hard at how they could encourage similar outcomes in their patch.
I will forward this article to our council. There are a few there who might be inspired.
Show threadAli Clarke Oct 23, 2025
@BigD @paulhellyer Russel Lund has just been elected to council!
Show threadAli Clarke Oct 23, 2025
@BigD @paulhellyer Oops I see it says that in the story 🤦🏻‍♀️
Show threadBigDOct 23, 2025
@simplicitarian @paulhellyer Yes I see that. He might encourage more to do similar.
Show threadAli Clarke Oct 24, 2025
@BigD @paulhellyer I won’t go into it here but he lives in my neighbourhood (in a huge ugly mansion he built) and there are various reasons he didn’t get my vote. That project is obviously worthwhile though.
Show threadRobynOct 24, 2025
@simplicitarian
It does feel to me like he's used the Sallies to "community wash" a project that was having trouble getting resource consent for various reasons
@BigD @paulhellyer
Show thread🇳🇿 Shayne ParkinsonOct 23, 2025
@paulhellyer that really is heartwarming. What a lovely story.
Show threadJon 🇳🇿Oct 23, 2025
@paulhellyer What an uplifting read.
Show threadJoe  Oct 24, 2025
@paulhellyer , I was sad in the past when I saw it was used for go-carting. Great initiative and outcome.
Would be great though if the city could do it on its own and returns could flow back into the community.
Show threadRandom Wish Genie  :Oct 24, 2025
@paulhellyer This is wonderful. When we were living in Dunedin we’d often walk past there and wondered what was happening to the building.