CHCH REBUILD | News

[SYDNEY]

First Christchurch City Hotel Re-Opens Since Earthquake

Ibis Christchurch opened its doors today (4 September), becoming the first city centre hotel to re-open since the February 2011 earthquake. The Ibis – located in Hereford Street, just off Cathedral Square – has undergone major remedial work, including the renovation of all 155 rooms and public areas, as well as structural strengthening to meet the city’s new building code. Just four years old when the quake hit, the Ibis received only minor damage and re-opens as a virtually new hotel featuring the latest Ibis branding and facilities. The hotel opening will play a crucial role in the revitalisation of Christchurch’s tourism sector, signaling that the city is firmly back on the map and ready to welcome visitors. It will be a major benefit to business travellers and officials involved in the reconstruction of the city, allowing easier access to buildings and offices around the city centre and encouraging other businesses to re-open to service the new demand. Local residents will also receive a boost with up to 50 people employed at the hotel.

The launch of the hotel comes a month after the announcement of a masterplan for the “re-imagining” of the city. The Ibis will be very close to the proposed convention centre as well as other key tourism, shopping and entertainment facilities. For tourists planning to visit the city now, the Ibis is adjacent to the new shopping heart of Christchurch, the Re:START Mall in Cashel Street. The "pop up" shopping precinct is the new vibrant heart of the city, featuring many new designer shops and modern cafes. The Ibis re-opening will also add significantly to the city’s restaurant stocks, with the new Oopen Pasta & Grill offering a menu featuring South Island specialty product and wines. Hotel Ibis Christchurch General Manager, Tim Dearsley, said that the 4th September re-launch date was selected because it represents the second anniversary of the first major quake to hit Christchurch, though it didn’t have anywhere near the same impact as the subsequent February 2011 quake. “Christchurch tourism has suffered enormously because of the perception that the city was closed following the earthquake,” Dearsley said.

“This was never true, but the re-opening of the Ibis will highlight that the city centre is now accessible to travellers and that there is plenty to do in the city, including many of the old activities, as well as new and innovative tourism experiences. “While some of the CBD is still cordoned off, it is important to note that the ‘red zone’ has reduced from 387 hectares to 49 hectares today and the authorities aim to have the city fully open by the middle of 2013 “The re-opening will help accelerate the city’s regeneration process. It will not only ease the critical shortage of accommodation and provide employment for local residents in Christchurch but it will allow significant progress to be made in reviving the city’s central business district and tourism industry. “The city has really needed the confidence boost of a major international hotel brand re-opening to cater for domestic and overseas visitors.” Accor’s Novotel Christchurch hotel is scheduled to re-open in mid 2013, while the future of the group’s two All Seasons hotels is yet to be determined due to restricted access to the hotels following the earthquake.

[SYDNEY]

Quake expert praises CBD cordon

[Rooty]

Originally Posted by SYDNEY

Quake expert praises CBD cordon

One of the comments in that article is hilarious:

Originally Posted by jo2lo #8

Yep, the cordon was stunning in its efficacy.

It kept out everyone who desparately needed to access their premises and recover property, but was totally transparent to thieving and trespassing intruders.

[SYDNEY]

Originally Posted by Rooty

One of the comments in that article is hilarious:

[SYDNEY]

New Zealand's largest new hospital announced

A $500 million-plus redevelopment of Christchurch's earthquake-hit hospitals was announced by the Government today, the second anniversary of the first massive tremor to strike the city. Earthquake Recovery Minister Gerry Brownlee stepped in to reveal New Zealand's biggest hospital investment after Prime Minister John Key's flight was cancelled at the eleventh hour. Before a packed room of Canterbury District Health Board officials and staff, Mr Brownlee praised their work dealing with the hundreds of earthquake injuries from the killer quake on February 22, 2011, in "exceptionally difficult" circumstances. He said many of the board's facilities were damaged in the earthquakes. About 200 buildings and more than 1200 rooms needed repairs and 106 beds were lost due to the closure of two floors in the Riverside Block at Christchurch Hospital. The total cost is expected to be more than half a billion dollars. A final price tag will be confirmed in December after a business plan is complete. The project would take up to four years. The Cabinet has approved $10m to get the redevelopment of Burwood Hospital underway as quickly as possible. Mr Brownlee was given a tour of the $7m, 36-bed acute medical assessment unit, which is already under construction.

He said the full project would be the "largest hospital build in the history of New Zealand's public health service" and a "very significant step" in the city's rebuild. Mr Brownlee said the Government couldn't afford to wait to try to fund the development with a Public Private Partnership. "... We can't spent another 12 months, two years, mucking around to see if anyone else wants to get involved ... The need is now." Associate Health Minister Jo Goodhew, who was also due to speak but delayed along with Mr Key, said the board's facilities must be redeveloped to meet current and future needs. "Canterbury DHB has been planning a redevelopment of its health services since 2008 but that process was interrupted by the series of destructive earthquakes in 2010 and 2011. "The final business plan will establish the best option to build additional operating theatres, replace around 500 beds, including purpose-designed space for children, an expanded intensive care unit and emergency department at Christchurch Hospital and a new hospital for older people's health at Burwood." Mr Brownlee said the Government would appoint a steering group of up to five people to work with the board on the final business case. He didn't rule out candidates from outside Canterbury and promised an announcement within weeks.

[SYDNEY]

Committee approves list of top 27 facilities

Christchurch City Council's Community, Recreation and Culture Committee has today agreed the Council should push ahead with prioritising 27 significant facilities for funding, further investigation and, where possible, repairs. As part of its Facilities Rebuild Plan project, staff today (Tuesday 4 September) presented a report to the committee which recommended 25 facilities should be prioritised for immediate action (these are listed below). Committee members agreed with the 25 recommendations made by staff and also added Riccarton Community Centre and volunteer libraries (volunteer libraries will be considered as one project) to the prioritised list. The committee also asked staff to report back to the Council about the status of all 27 significant facilities by December this year. The committee will now recommend the full Council endorses the top 27 at the next Council meeting on Thursday 27 September. If the Council approves the list, work will continue as a priority to understand more about the facilities, such as the type of repairs and earthquake strengthening needed, the cost of this work and how much of this will be covered by insurance.

A draft prioritised programme for the remainder of the 1000 facilities included in the Council's Facilities Rebuild Plan project also received committee approval today. This will also be presented to the 27 September meeting for full Council approval. Community boards will have input into this prioritised programme. Community Recreation and Culture Committee Chairman Yani Johanson says this is an important milestone. "I believe it is imperative that the Council gives our communities hope and certainty by establishing some top priority projects in our suburbs going forward. While there has been a huge focus on the Central City facilities, it is important that neighbourhoods are not forgotten about either. As such I believe it is critical that we send a clear signal around where Council resources are targeted in terms of recovery. This list highlights that things such as swimming pools, libraries, service centres, community halls, and housing are essential elements for the well being of local communities." The proposed list of 27 'significant projects' includes a range of facilities across Christchurch and Banks Peninsula that are currently closed. Some were closed following the earthquakes while the Council has closed others after receiving Detailed Engineering Evaluation (DEE) assessments which shows they are below 34 percent of the New Building Standard (NBS).

The top 27 were selected based on a criteria that considered a number of factors, including the impact the building's closure is having on the community. At today's meeting, the committee agreed with the criteria Council staff had used to put together their recommendations, but asked that one of the criteria - the criteria that notes whether a facility is earning revenue - should be removed. Click here to see the 27 significant facilities (these are not in any particular order): http://www.ccc.govt.nz/thecouncil/co...buildplan.aspx. Read the full report to the committee, including all the staff recommendations, here: http://www1.ccc.govt.nz/council/agen...crc_agenda.pdf

At today's meeting, the committee also received a monthly progress report on the Facilities Rebuild Plan project and its Detailed Engineering Evaluation programme. The report included a prioritised programme for the remainder of the Detailed Engineering Evaluation (DEE) assessments that will be carried out on social housing facilities over the coming year. DEE assessments are already underway or have been completed on nine social housing complexes across the city. Read the report here: http://www1.ccc.govt.nz/council/agen...crc_agenda.pdf

Background:

A number of Council-owned facilities have already been prioritised for repairs or rebuilding as part of the Council's Annual Plan 2012/13:

These are:

* Christchurch Town Hall
* Convention Centre
* Christchurch Art Gallery
* Former AMI Stadium
* Central City Multi-Sport facility and QEII facilities
* Centennial Pool
* Central Library
* Lichfield Street Carpark
* Manchester Street Carpark
* Sockburn Service Centre

The Council has already approved repairs to a number of other facilities. Repairs and earthquake strengthening to 100 percent of the New Building Standard (NBS) have been completed on Fendalton Library and Service Centre. Repairs are underway on Curator's House, Posiedon Café in Sumner, Cowles Stadium, Linwood Community Arts Centre and Avebury House in Richmond. Repairs have also been approved for Victoria Clock Tower (Jubilee Clock) and Edmonds Clock Tower.

For more information about the Council's Facilities Rebuild Plan project visit www.ccc.govt.nz/facilitiesrebuild

[SYDNEY]

Building consent value will top $200 million

The value of building consents for major commercial projects across the city will reach $200 million in the next week. Council records show that for the last week of March the value of consented works for commercial projects over one million dollars was $9.1 million. By Friday 24 June this had increased to $89.1 million, and by last Friday had reached almost $199.9 million. “In the last ten weeks the total accumulated works for building consents has doubled and is a strong indication that there is growing confidence around commercial projects across the city’, says Council Building Operations Manager Ethan Stetson. “We’re continuing to see strong interest in pre-application meetings and of course this makes the consent process go faster as many issues are resolved or clarified in those discussions.” The figures include a total of 82 building consents for major commercial projects granted across the city, seventeen of which are within the Four Avenues. Eight of these consents were granted in the last ten weeks. “Certainly we can take heart from these figures – this is no small achievement over a six month period.”

[SYDNEY]

Big camps planned for rebuild workers

[SYDNEY]

Christchurch construction upturn welcomed

House building in and around Christchurch has hit its highest level in more than five years as the rebuild gathers speed. The Christchurch, Selwyn and Waimakariri councils are together issuing about 300 consents a month for new houses and multi-unit complexes, the most since mid-2007 and double that of a year ago. The biggest rise has been in centres such as Rolleston, Kaiapoi, Rangiora and Lincoln as red-zoners fan out, and half the new homes going up in Greater Christchurch are within the Selwyn and Waimakariri districts. Canterbury Registered Master Builders Association president Clive Barrington said the upturn was a relief and a turnaround from the "pretty grim" situation a year ago. "In the last two or three months we've seen a shift," he said. "Insurance is available, whereas before it was impossible, and the lack of earthquakes and aftershocks is all helping, touch wood." Barrington said most of the new homes were in subdivisions, and pricing was still competitive. "It's not a boom yet," he said. Pavlos Van Aalst, manager of house building company Golden Homes, said business had stepped up in the past few weeks as the weather improved. "Things are starting to move again. "It's starting to ramp up and there's also a lot of insurance work starting to come through." The company's staff numbers were "30 or 40 per cent up" on a year ago and he was on the lookout for more workers.

Customers included residents moving out of red zones and others who had sold to red-zoners and were now building new homes. Most wanted strong foundations and double glazing, but were price focused. "Nobody is being extravagant. They are just wanting a new home and there are budgets to be met," he said. In the Christchurch suburb of Halswell, buyers have snapped up 280 sections - most of the first four stages - at the Longhurst and Knights Stream Park twin subdivisions. "We are running out of sections that are ready to build on. [The developers] have certainly sped things up; they are going hard out," said Chris Jones, of Bayleys, who is marketing the sections. "The first house is going up now and there are lots of consent applications in. In the next couple of weeks there will be four or five more houses starting." Kaiapoi subdivision Silverstream Estates, the first fast-tracked under emergency earthquake legislation, has sold its first stage of sections. Forty houses planned for the subdivision are now at the consent stage. Christchurch City Council granted consents for $41.2 million of new houses last month, of which $5.1m was for multi-unit dwellings such as apartment complexes. Statistics New Zealand described the rise in house construction in Canterbury during the past few months as strong.

[SYDNEY]

Opening date set for supermarket

The $20 million rebuild of the St Martins New World supermarket is nearing completion, with the new store to open on September 18. Workers have spent the past 12 months rebuilding after the former building was demolished following the February 2011 earthquake. Store owner Russell McKenzie said that the contractors working on the site had done an "amazing job" getting the supermarket ready to open in a fortnight. "Putting down the piles for the supermarket took three months alone with 143 of them having to be dug down to an average of 20 metres, but we wanted to ensure that whatever sized earthquake we might experience in the future, our customers would feel safe in our supermarket," he said. The supermarket is about 25 per cent bigger than the last building and has 437 grocery bays, 11 checkouts, two express lanes and seven self-scan areas. There are also 253 carparks and an espresso area. The opening of the supermarket is the first stage of the development, with other retail outlets, such as a bank, cafe and chemist, likely to open in the coming months.

[SYDNEY]

EDIT

[SYDNEY]

$2 billion boost for Christchurch

The Government today revealed its five-year more than $2 billion rebuild plan of Christchurch's earthquake-damaged infrastructure. $1.1 billion of work has been approved so far. The city's underground pipe network and its roads were badly damaged in the intense shaking over the last two years. Earthquake Recovery Minister Gerry Brownlee and city mayor Bob Parker unveiled the major plan at a pump station rebuild site today. The plan includes a map setting out timeframes for roads and underground services across the city. "This work is one piece of a much bigger and complex city-wide recovery programme," Mr Brownlee said. "But it is highly significant as underground services need to be rebuilt and future-proofed so that the city's recovery is founded on a secure infrastructure base." The work has been prioritised, with the aim being to fix the worst affected areas, like the eastern suburbs, first. Mayor Parker said the plan gave "certainty for the future".

[SYDNEY]

Britain heads list of nationalities assisting rebuild

Britain, the Philippines and Ireland head the list of countries providing labour for Christchurch's rebuild. The three nations account for more than 80 per cent of the 440 visas issued by Immigration New Zealand to workers helping rebuild the earthquake-hit city. Britain was well ahead of the rest with 214 visas, followed by the Philippines with 80 and Ireland on 69. The United States contributed 29, but no other country reached double figures. The numbers are for all visas issued between July 2011 and August this year. An Immigration New Zealand spokeswoman said 11,795 British and Irish working- holiday visas were also issued in the past financial year, and some recipients could be working on the rebuild. The most popular occupations were insurance loss adjustor (60 visas) and quantity surveyor (50). Engineers rated highly, as did core construction jobs such as carpenters, joiners and painters. Canterbury Employment and Skills Board chairman Alex Bouma said British and Irish links to New Zealand were strong, and Filipinos were also well-suited. "We've got some really good cultural synergies [with the Philippines]. There's a lot of English spoken there," he said. "There's an excellent, highly skilled workforce that we can tap into. They can come in, do some work, add some scale and then leave again." Speaking from Manila, he said it was clear the country was in a construction boom. "Every direction I look in there are high-rise buildings popping up. It's absolutely going ahead leaps and bounds," he said. Christchurch-based Leighs Construction was recruiting Filipino carpenters and planned to have 25 on its books by the end of the year. Using local expertise when the rebuild picked up would be critical, Bouma said, but further foreign recruitment was a given. "We're inevitably going to have to look offshore. There just simply aren't enough arms and legs in New Zealand with that sort of skill," he said. "Quantity surveyors is the key one. There's only so many of them and you need them for every single project." Canterbury Registered Master Builders Association president Clive Barrington agreed. "Quantity surveyors are pretty sought after at the moment and now that the recovery's starting, I can see more and more tradesmen coming here." The rebuild would start to take off by mid-2013, he said.

[SYDNEY]

Christchurch rebuild design boosts hiring plans

The Christchurch Central Development Unit blueprint has boosted building firms' hiring confidence to record levels, but nationwide that confidence is lower than a year ago, a ManpowerGroup survey shows. The recruitment company surveyed 650 Kiwi employers, with more than a quarter expecting to increase staff and 8 per cent looking at decreasing workforces in the final quarter of this year. The net, seasonally adjusted employment confidence outlook was +18 per cent, which is 4 percentage points down on a year ago, according to the quarterly survey. ManpowerGroup national manager Matt Love-Smith said the unfulfilled expectations of the rebuild had been borne out in the figures over the past year .... MORE

[SYDNEY]

Hospital rebuilding set in motion

An Auckland doctor and a property developer are among the people who will lead the re development of Christchurch and Burwood hospitals. Last week the Government announced backing for the Canterbury District Health Board's plan to redevelop two of its hospitals in the largest public health service project in New Zealand's history. The plan has been in the pipeline since 2007 but damage to the health board's facilities in the earthquakes has accelerated the need for new buildings. Health Minister Tony Ryall announced yesterday the members of the new hospital redevelopment partnership group set up to “enable a faster build”. Board chairman Bruce Matheson, chief executive of Ngai Tahu Property Tony Sewell and Margaret Wilsher, chief medical officer of health at the Auckland District Health Board, will make up the group, along with chairman Evan Davies, managing director of Todd Property Group and chairman of the National Health Board's capital investment committee .... MORE

[voyager8907]

Originally Posted by Milan Luka

Good find Tom. I think indictable took a snap of the advertising hoarding on this site about 2 weeks back.

I think as this is the 2nd largest of the cbd office buildings currently confirmed I think it does deserve it's own thread. But I can get that started shortly... (Largest being St Elmos Courts- have heard the grounds been broken on that one, I hope to get down that way soon and see what's happening)

Is the BNZ House replacement in Cathedral Square confirmed?

[SYDNEY]

'Pace is on' for new central city

Last week's front-page story (Sept 11) and editorial (Sept 12) criticised the CCDU's pace in getting the next steps in the rebirth of the central city under way. In one sense, the frustration is positive, underlining the enthusiasm for the new blueprint. The businesspeople quoted and The Press want to see it come to life, just as the CCDU and the Government do. That enthusiasm for the blueprint is in line with the opinion surveys immediately after its release, which indicated that among those who reported they knew a lot or a fair amount about the blueprint, 82 per cent of Christchurch businesspeople, 66 per cent of Christchurch residents and 53 per cent of New Zealanders supported it ... MORE

[SYDNEY]

Canterbury confidence surges ahead

Cantabrians are the most confident about the prospects of their economy of all regions in the country. Economic confidence is surging ahead in the region and leading the country ''by a country mile'', Westpac McDermott Miller's latest regional economic confidence survey for the September quarter shows. Confidence in the Canterbury economy rose to a net 36 per cent from a net 25 per cent in the June quarter. The survey showed 57 per cent of households in Canterbury expected good times for the local economy, as opposed to 21 per cent expecting bad times, resulting in the net 36 per cent positive reading. Cantabrians are now the most optimistic they have been since mid-2010, before the first earthquake. Elsewhere, households' confidence in their local economy rose in six out of 11 regions. In most regions, cautious optimism or mild pessimism predominates ... MORE

[SYDNEY]

Different flavour of businesses in Christchurch CBD

A post-quake Christchurch is likely to see a different mix of businesses occupying the future CBD and new long-term concentrations of businesses outside the central city, University of Canterbury (UC) research has found. UC Professor Simon Kemp, who supervised the research, said planning for other commercial areas outside the central city such as Riccarton, Addington and Sydenham would probably be worth undertaking; including new public transport hubs might become important. It seems likely that a relatively small, compact central city will at least initially house fewer businesses than it did previously. Many of the relocated businesses have found the past year or so quite tough, he said. `Types of business not so likely to return include many retailers, those offering financial services and businesses that are concerned with making or repairing things. The longer businesses stay away, the less likely they are to return. `A large number of businesses that used to be in the centre of Christchurch relocated after the earthquakes. The overall chance of return for bigger businesses was greater (55 percent) than for small ones (42 percent). Some types of business are more likely to return than others. For example, many legal concerns are likely to return – so as to be near the courts.’’ ... MORE

[SYDNEY]

Property values rebound boosts coffers

Ngai Tahu Holdings Corp, bolstered by a record bottom-line result of almost $100 million, is looking for agriculture and Christchurch rebuild investment opportunities. NTHC, responsible for investments for the South Island iwi Ngai Tahu, achieved a record bottom-line profit of $95.66 million for the year to June 30 boosted by $40.4m of one-off gains. It was well up from $15.9m in the June 2011 year, hit by lower property revaluations resulting from earthquake damage. The 2012 result has been helped by a rebound in property values and as the company pilots a series of three dairy farms on what was forestry land. Chairman Trevor Burt said the result reflected strong performances from the NTHC subsidiaries, which include property, seafood, tourism and capital. The revaluation of the dairy properties had helped substantially, as had the profit on the sale of Ryman Healthcare shares for $27m. Ngai Tahu's revenues for 2012 grew to $209.4m, up from $162.6m in 2011. Stripping out one-off gains, the four subsidiaries reported a record operating surplus of $55.1m up from $37.28m in 2011. A total of $26.26m of the company's profit was distributed to the iwi. This included grants of $240,000 to each of the tribe's 18 runanga in the South Island ... MORE