Rather than a typical ''for lease'' sign in the window, the trust decided to cast a wider net, chairman Graeme Clark said.
''Because it's such a magnificent space we're looking for the right tenant to go in there - what that may be we've got an open mind - but it's such a grand space,'' Mr Clark said.
''And particularly now we've got lift access, which will be ready hopefully by the end of February, it's worth putting it out there now.''
In the spring, the trust began work to install a limited-access lift into the former grainstore for what was at the time the country's largest stock and station agency, the New Zealand Loan and Mercantile Agency Company Ltd.
Then late last year, the former tenant, the New Zealand Whisky Company announced it would move its Oamaru barrel storage and bottling to the nearby Northern Hotel, in Tyne St - a move Mr Clark endorsed as it was ''giving another building a new life'' in the town's Victorian Precinct.
That move created the only vacancy among the trust's 17 buildings in the area.
Mr Clark said the trust would make sure it found the right tenant for the space and continued its mission to have ''a good mix of tenants, that do fit, that add to the flavour of the street''.
''The Loan and Merc, probably along with the Criterion [Hotel], are really our jewels in the crown we would say,'' Mr Clark said.
The ground floor of the building is occupied by Housekeepers Function and the top floor by outdoor apparel brand Moke.
