20 years ago — September 1998:
• A $9.5 million redevelopment for the Bank of New Zealand in the heart of Hamilton was completed by Hawkins Construction.
A new office complex was built on the original BNZ site which was largely cleared in 1997 — an impressive five-storey building with a 2500sq m basement car park, 6000sq m of office space, and a rooftop plant room housing HVAC and elevator motor equipment.
The building had an expansive frontage to Hamilton’s main shopping area on Victoria Street. As part of the process of rebuilding the site, some of the construction elements of the old BNZ building were retained.
15 years ago — September 2003:
• High-risk builders and contractors with a poor credit performance were to be put under the microscope as a result of new technology backed by the Registered Master Builders Federation and other industry groups.
Launched by Minister of Commerce Lianne Dalziel, Credit Reference Industry Solution (CRISworks), developed by CreditWorks Data Solutions, was part of a broader loss-prevention initiative by the Building Industry Federation.
It was a response to the escalating bad debt problem faced by New Zealand’s building industry. In Auckland alone, the industry had amassed more than $150 million in bad debt during the preceding five years.
10 years ago — September 2008:
• The Registered Master Builders Federation welcomed the National Party’s promises to reduce bureaucracy in the construction industry.
Acting RMBF chief executive Chris Preston said the party’s policy addressed many of the issues the organisation had been highlighting for the previous couple of years.
“We have been talking for some time about the problem of rising compliance costs and fees charged by local authorities, and the negative impact this has been having on housing affordability,” Mr Preston said.
“We would applaud practical streamlining of the process that our builders have to go through to assist getting clients into their homes in a timely and cost-effective way.
“We also welcome the opportunity to work with National on the Licensed Building Practitioner scheme, which we see as a very important step in raising the standard of construction in New Zealand.”
5 years ago — September 2013:
• One of the most expensive buildings to come up for sale in almost a decade — Telecom Central in Wellington — had reached full occupancy after demonstrating its stability during recent earthquakes.
Knight Frank real estate agency managing director Layne Harwood said there was a strong market for earthquake-resilient buildings, and this would help reassure those landlords considering investing in seismic strengthening of buildings that it was the right action to take.
Mr Harwood pointed to the vacancy uptake of Telecom Central which was secured by a banking business following recent events affecting Wellington.
He said the Telecom Central building in Willis Street, built in 2011, was designed to withstand significant seismic activity, and had performed as expected.
The 28,000sq m multi-award winning building was built on bedrock, and had an A+ seismic rating and a 5 Green Star environmental rating.
