The former Green Acorn cafe, on the corner of Cumberland and St David Sts, has been empty since the start of the year.
Asked what plans it had for the space, chief operating officer John Patrick replied: "We are evaluating several options for this building.
Given its prime location, we feel its use needs to be carefully considered."
He did not say when the university would make a decision about the building, or whether those plans included demolition.
The 124-year-old, two-storeyed building takes up almost all the 0.02ha site. The property has a rateable value of $404,000.
Researching the building for his Otago Daily Times "Artbeat" column last year, Dunedin curator, historian and writer Peter Entwisle was surprised to discover it was designed by New Zealand's foremost Victorian architect Robert Lawson, better known for large and ornate Dunedin buildings such as First Church, Knox Church, the Municipal Chambers and Otago Boys High School.
The modest Green Acorn building, consisting of two ground-floor shops with verandas and two dwellings above, was built in 1885 for a Donald Malloch, of Waikouaiti.
As well as a cafe it has housed a grocery store and a locksmith and gun shop over the years.
Mr Entwisle's research indicated Lawson designed only a small number of shops with dwellings attached, perhaps seven.
To his knowledge, the Green Acorn was the only one known to have survived.
Because it was one of Lawson's more unusual commissions, the Green Acorn was "special" and should be retained, Mr Entwisle said.