Business owners are among the enthusiasts for renovation works to The Exchange Clock Tower.

This week the freshly-painted exterior of the 132-year-old building that started life as the city's post office was unveiled.

Macquarie Street businessman Anthony Barnes was one of those watching the scaffolding come down with "a lot of anticipation".

The heritage building is a familiar sight to him from his store across the road, and he's pleased to see its prospects looking up as The Exchange Clock Tower, a home for start-up businesses.

"From what I can see, it's pretty impressive," he said on Monday as the scaffolding was gradually coming down.

"It's a major improvement, it's very exciting, it was such an eyesore before.

"More importantly, once done up hopefully it is utilised and brings people to the building in the CBD."

His interest in the renovation project led by building owner Jillian Kilby is echoed by the wider community.

The engineer bought the property from Telstra in November and immersed herself bringing it back to life.

Ms Kilby was beaming on Wednesday after the exterior works were completed.

"I've been standing outside the building over the past two days watching the community walk past and one-by-one they all turn their heads and they look up and they say 'Thank you' or 'Congratulations' or 'Isn't it great to have our icon back'," she said.

Her thanks went out to the team of tradies that tackled the task.

"And three months is a very quick turnaround and they've all felt, I think they've felt the community's very grateful, they know I'm grateful, but they just really enjoyed working on such an icon," she said.

Now efforts will turn to the building's interior and what's anticipated is a "fairly straightforward internal renovation".

"Floors, paint, kitchen, bathroom, it's a little like renovating a home, just on a much bigger scale," Ms Kilby said.

"And we continue to be respectful to the layout, to the heritage material and to doing a very high quality renovation of such an important landmark."

Christine Horder is another long-time CBD business owner who's all praise for the endeavour.

"What great foresight, it was a sleeping beauty waiting for a new beginning," she said in a post to the Daily Liberal's Facebook page.

"Great work."