The Dunedin City Council's hearings committee will decide next week whether to grant consent for an office and retail development in South Dunedin.
Under the proposal, considered at a resource consent hearing yesterday, buildings on industrial land at 86 Macandrew Rd would be converted into an office and retail shop.
The office would be for Access Homehealth, while the adjoining community shop would sell second-hand goods to help fund St John ambulance service activities in Dunedin.
A council planner has recommended consent be granted for the office but declined for the shop, but the committee heard arguments in favour of both projects yesterday.
St John project manager Darrel Robinson told the committee St John had searched the city before concluding the site was the only one suitable.
That was because St John wanted a seismically strong building of warehouse size, with adequate car parking and demand for its products.
''The site ... is the one identified that best suits St John requirements,'' he said.
St John also planned to expand the premises in time by developing a Community Support facility as ''stage two'', he said.
However, if consent was declined, ''it is possible that the project will not proceed'', he told the committee.
Site owner Justin Stott, of Harborough Properties Ltd, said his company had struggled to find an industrial tenant to occupy the ''unattractive'' site, of nearly 10,000sq m, in the past three years.
Instead, since 2012, it had obtained consents for two new businesses on other parts of the site - Aurora Health Ltd and Anytime Fitness - which brought 60 staff into South Dunedin each day.
''We believe the proposed activities will have a similar positive effect.''
The committee concluded yesterday's hearing with a site visit, but the meeting would reconvene next week to continue non-public deliberations.
