A major refurbishment of the Mackerras and Hazlett building at 43 Crawford St has been completed by owner Lawrie Forbes and was officially reopened on Friday.
Mr Forbes, who runs the company Zeal Steel, said the building had been renamed "Zeallandia", partially as a reference to the underwater land mass beneath New Zealand.
"R.A. Lawson, the original architect, created amazing subterranean arches to try to support the building. There's thousands and thousands of bricks underneath the ground. So it's like the continent of Zealandia, with so much of it being submerged."
The building, built in 1882 by James Taylor Mackerras and James Hazlett, began as an importer's business before the modern customs system.
The company dealt in goods including wines, spirits, tea, sugar and tobacco.
Its new tenant will be WorkSafe, which Mr Forbes said would have about 40 employees in the building.
Mr Forbes, who bought the building in January 2016, said he wanted to reuse as much original material as possible.
"Everything is reused, even down to the 2500 bolts."
The renovations took about 18 months to complete and cost just over $2million.
"It was about $1.8million for the base build, and then for the fit-out, I spent just over $200,000."
- Samuel Rillstone
