Some Christchurch building owners say a bulldozer's the best option, despite the city council calling for government help to rebuild heritage buildings damaged by the earthquake.
Business owners have told the Christchurch City Council they are haemorrhaging thousands of dollars a week, while it decides whether or not to demolish their buildings following last month's earthquake.
The owner of a building that collapsed in last February's Christchurch earthquake - killing four people - has faced questioning about why he did not get recommended strengthening work done.
The Property Council says an ultimatum from the Christchurch City Council to owners of earthquake damaged commercial buildings will add to the stress business people are already under.
The mayor of Christchurch is urging owners of heritage buildings damaged in the earthquake, not to tear down the city's treasures without first considering if they can be saved.
The Christchurch City Council says it needs Government money to help repair its earthquake damaged heritage and character buildings.
A Christchurch businessman has told the Earthquake Royal Commission the city council was a nightmare to deal with when he was trying to strengthen his building before the September quake.
The popular bar, restaurant and music venue was a fixture of the city's Arts Centre for decades before the 2011 earthquake.
Site of a fund that exists to provide financial assistance to owners of earthquake damaged qualifying heritage buildings so that the buildings can be saved if they are repairable.
More than a houndred people with businesses in Christchurch's CBD have stormed a cordon into the Red Zone, in frustration at still not being allowed access to their buildings - one month on from the earthquake.
A man sweeps up brick dust outside a building on London Street in Lyttelton. The building's owner has written "Not for demo" on its side.
Photograph captioned by BeckerFraserPhotos, "Grant Thornton Building, Cathedral Square, in the centre of the photo. With the owners and insurers to decide".
Pyne Gould building tenants in Christchurch have told the Royal Commission of Inquiry into the Canterbury Earthquakes hearing they didn't feel safe there after the September quake.
Implementing seismic risk mitigation is a major challenge in many earthquake prone regions. The objective of this research is to investigate how property investment market practices can be used to enhance building owners’ decisions to improve seismic performance of earthquake prone buildings (EPBs). A case study method adopted, revealed the impacts of the property market stakeholders’ practices on seismic retrofit decisions. The findings from this research provide significant new insights on how property market-based incentives such as such as mandatory disclosure of seismic risks in all transactions in the property market, effective awareness seismic risk program and a unified earthquake safety assessment information system, can be used to enhance EPBs owners seismic retrofit decisions. These market-based incentives offer compelling reasons for the different property market stakeholders and the public at large to retain, care, invest, and act responsibly to rehabilitate EPBs. The findings suggest need for stakeholders involved in property investment and retrofit decisions to work together to foster seismic rehabilitation of EPBs.
The Canterbury Earthquake Royal Commission has heard that a breakdown in communication between structural engineers, a property manager and owner led the tenants of a building to wrongly assume their shop was safe.
Kaikoura and Wellington businesses operating adjacent to quake damaged buildings may face disruption for years to come as owners drag their feet on repair or demolition work. A Christchurch property owner has been unable to completely re-open for business since the February 2011 earthquake.
Some owners of commercial buildings badly damaged in the Canterbury earthquake, have been told if they don't repair or demolish them by January the 31st, the Christchurch City Council will do it for them.
Whole document is available to authenticated members of The University of Auckland until Feb. 2014. The increasing scale of losses from earthquake disasters has reinforced the need for property owners to become proactive in seismic risk reduction programs. However, despite advancement in seismic design methods and legislative frameworks, building owners are often reluctant to adopt mitigation measures required to reduce earthquake losses. The magnitude of building collapses from the recent Christchurch earthquakes in New Zealand shows that owners of earthquake prone buildings (EPBs) are not adopting appropriate risk mitigation measures in their buildings. Owners of EPBs are found unwilling or lack motivation to adopt adequate mitigation measures that will reduce their vulnerability to seismic risks. This research investigates how to increase the likelihood of building owners undertaking appropriate mitigation actions that will reduce their vulnerability to earthquake disaster. A sequential two-phase mixed methods approach was adopted for the research investigation. Multiple case studies approach was adopted in the first qualitative phase, followed by the second quantitative research phase that includes the development and testing of a framework. The research findings reveal four categories of critical obstacles to building owners‘ decision to adopt earthquake loss prevention measures. These obstacles include perception, sociological, economic and institutional impediments. Intrinsic and extrinsic interventions are proposed as incentives for overcoming these barriers. The intrinsic motivators include using information communication networks such as mass media, policy entrepreneurs and community engagement in risk mitigation. Extrinsic motivators comprise the use of four groups of incentives namely; financial, regulatory, technological and property market incentives. These intrinsic and extrinsic interventions are essential for enhancing property owners‘ decisions to voluntarily adopt appropriate earthquake mitigation measures. The study concludes by providing specific recommendations that earthquake risk mitigation managers, city councils and stakeholders involved in risk mitigation in New Zealand and other seismic risk vulnerable countries could consider in earthquake risk management. Local authorities could adopt the framework developed in this study to demonstrate a combination of incentives and motivators that yield best-valued outcomes. Consequently, actions can be more specific and outcomes more effective. The implementation of these recommendations could offer greater reasons for the stakeholders and public to invest in building New Zealand‘s built environment resilience to earthquake disasters.
A photograph of a damaged building in Lyttelton. "Owner call [phone number]" has been spray painted on the fence.
Photograph captioned by Fairfax, "Historic building owner John Phillips wants the red tape to go so he can pull his very badly damaged heritage building down and start again so the businesses in the premises can start again. Phillips owns the former Nurse Maude building on Madras Street".
As a result of the findings and recommendations of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into the Canterbury Earthquake Swarm of 2010-2011 the New Zealand Government has introduced new legislation that will require the mandatory strengthening of all earthquake-prone buildings in New Zealand. An earthquake prone building is currently defined as a building that is less than one third the seismic strength of a new building. If an owner does not wish to strengthen their buildings then they must demolish them. Seismic retrofitting of buildings is a form of property development and as such, the decision to retrofit or not should be based on a robust and soundly conducted feasibility study. Feasibility studies on seismic retrofitting can be particularly challenging for a number of reasons thus making it difficult for owners to make informed and sound decisions relating to their earthquake prone buildings. This paper considers the concept and process of feasibility analysis as applied to earthquake prone buildings and discusses the current challenges posed by such feasibility studies. A number of recommendations are made in an attempt to help develop a best practice model for decision making relating to earthquake prone buildings."
Photograph captioned by Fairfax, "Owner of Real Groovy Records Paul Huggins outside their new premises in the old Penny Cycles building on the corner of Manchester and Tuam Streets after the earthquake damaged their old building".
Photograph captioned by Fairfax, "Owner of Real Groovy Records Paul Huggins outside their new premises in the old Penny Cycles building on the corner of Manchester and Tuam Streets after the earthquake damaged their old building".
Photograph captioned by Fairfax, "Owner of Real Groovy Records Paul Huggins outside their new premises in the old Penny Cycles building on the corner of Manchester and Tuam Streets after the earthquake damaged their old building".
The Building Act 2004 now requires Territorial Authorities (TAs) to have in place a policy setting out how they intend making existing buildings that would be unable to withstand a moderate earthquake safe for their occupiers. Many of the resultant policies developed by TAs have put in place mandatory upgrade requirements that will force owners to expend large amounts of capital on seismic upgrading of their buildings. The challenge for the property owners and TAs alike is to make such development work economic or the result will be wide scale demolition of old buildings. This has serious implications for both heritage conservation and inner city revitalisation plans that are based on existing heritage buildings. This paper sets out the issues and challenges for the seismic upgrading of buildings in New Zealand and puts forward some potential solutions
Photograph captioned by Fairfax, "Historic building owner John Phillips wants the red tape to go so he can pull his very badly damaged heritage building down and start again so the businesses in the premises can start again".
A video of business owners outside the Christchurch Art Gallery protesting the lack of access to their buildings in the Red Zone.
A protest is underway outside insurance company Vero's Christchurch's office, with building owners dismayed to be still fighting for earthquake repairs 10 years on. The protest was organised by the owners of an 11 unit apartment block in New Brighton, who says Vero is purposefully delaying progress to wear them down. RNZ's reporter Rachel Graham is at the protest and spoke to Meriana Johnsen
Four years ago Christchurch City Council vowed to get tough on the owners of 30 central city buildings left derelict since the 2011 earthquake. A wander through central Christchurch shows many of the buildings, nicknamed the dirty 30, still look unchanged. There are boarded up windows, tarps covering gaping holes, and containers keeping bricks from falling on passers by. But council says progress is finally being made on most Rachel Graham has more.
Photograph captioned by Fairfax, "Major earthquake hits Christchurch. Buildings demolished on corner of Cranford Street and Westminster Street. Rose Lennon (owner of La Boutique)".