Liquor distributor Gosling Brothers Limited is expanding its office space and bottling plant on Dundonald Street to accommodate an expanding product line as well as to smarten up the exterior and interior of the company's 20-year old space.

Plans include a two-phase expansion that will ultimately change the external and internal design of the space. Part of the plans are to incorporate a new retail space by the Dundonald Street entrance and a state-of-the-art wine tasting facility and private wine storage cellars.

Management said part of the push to redevelop the Gosling plant was in response to the neighbourhood becoming more residential after Sir John Swan's plush Atlantis apartment complex to the east on Dundonald Street came online ? and with two additional apartment blocks under development at the junction of Dundonald Street and Cedar Avenue and next to the Olympic Club, respectively.

The expansion ? a major project that will reportedly grow the property by an additional 20,000 feet to "somewhere over 80,000 square feet" ? just broke ground, but work is expected to take until March, 2006.

Management said the expansion project has been carefully planned so as to not hamper the company's ongoing operations.

The 2006 end date should mean that work is finished in time for Gosling Brothers to celebrate 200 years in business ? with the anniversary falling in June, 2006 ? with a big bang from its new space. President Nancy Gosling told that the first phase of the project would see the expansion of existing office space out over the roof of the existing warehouse.

A bank of parking bays at the Corporation of Hamilton's Elliot Street parking lot is blocked off to accommodate a crane needed for the redevelopment, but Mrs. Gosling said the company was paying for the spaces.

"The expansion goes to the east, at the same floor level as already exists. We will also be expanding the bottling facility as part of phase one," she said.

The need to have a larger bottling facility follows the company introducing new rum products in the last year, including Gosling's Gold Rum which was said to have "taken off really well".

New warehouse space is also part of the plan.

In addition to the need to account for its growing product line, Gosling's will be able to consolidate the operations of its acquisition from a few years ago, Cosmopolitan Liquors, into its Dundonald Street location rather than renting space.

The refit is also designed to create new traffic flows and lighten congestion. "We have incoming and outgoing (traffic) in some places.

"The new plans will create to separate ways into the new warehouse."

On the Dundonald side of the plant, a new retail shop with a focus on wine is to be built.

Currently, part of the space underneath the Gosling's building is a double-storey storage space for kegs and cases of beer will be split into two levels.

This will become the new retail outlet and wine cellar space that will be overlooked by a mezzanine wine tasting area.

Gosling's new wine cellar has been designed to have the look, feel and cool climate of an old wine cellar, and units will be available for rent as private wine storage facilities.

"The wine cellar will give the impression of an old cellar with old cellar doors, wrought iron, wood and brick."

The wine tasting area ? complete with stately spiral staircase down to the wine cellars and a mezzanine bar ? will also be available for rent to parties, and is to include a full-catering kitchen.

The space will become home to the company's wine trend seminars and tasting sessions.

Mrs. Gosling said the renovations will also see the facade of the structure change, including a tower being built with stained glass windows and the Gosling's Black Seal logo on the west side of the building adjacent to the company car park and the addition of a Bermuda-style roof replacing the current flat top structure. The colour will also change from what Mrs. Gosling described as "off-rose" to a more upbeat yellow with green trim.

"We want to make it look nicer, as the neighbourhood becomes more residential. We don't want to be the eyesore of the area," she said. Although there had been some thought given to building apartments on the top level of the new space, that idea was nixed when the company discovered the structure was not designed to support another storey. Mrs. Gosling concluded, with a smile, that the redevelopment of the space should carry the company through the next 200 years.