Christchurch nine years on: The reshaping of a city

Friday, 21 February 2020

Christchurch's quakes nine years ago left not so much a huge repair job, but the problem of how to rebuild a city which had developed organically over a century and a half. LIZ MCDONALD takes stock.

As the authorities closed off the central city and red-stickered homes after February 22, they knew there was no handbook for what came next and big decisions were needed.

Unprecedented moves followed. The central city was redesigned, large land tracts designated for Crown buy-ups, whole suburbs closed, and managed home repair schemes launched. Laws bestowing special powers were passed, and a new Government entity formed to run the show.

Nine years on, those decisions continue to shape Christchurch, often in ways that were not foreseen.

In what was considered a good chance to improve a previously sprawling and increasingly shabby central business district, new rules were introduced for the rebuild. New green corridors housing businesses and apartments would close the two sides of a frame formed by the Avon River, concentrating the city core.

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Zoning would cluster various activities into precincts. These would accommodate technology and innovation businesses, retailers, convention and hotel facilities, health services, and performing arts venues. Spin-off businesses such as cafes would be encouraged to spring up alongside.

Anchor Projects

The public side of the rebuild would be a $4.8 billion batch of construction projects aimed at re-seeding the central city. All were scheduled to be finished during 2017. Labelled anchor projects, they were intended to help attract new residents, visitors and private business development.

None have been delivered on schedule.  Plans for large scale international investment and private partnership deals did not work out, costing valuable time. 

By the end of 2015, only the bus interchange and the new Margaret Mahy playground – the largest in the country – were completed. Both opened to public acclaim.

In the years since, and well behind the original schedule, more Crown and council rebuild projects have been delivered. Some of the projects have attracted international awards.

Open are the new central library TŪranga, the Hagley cricket oval, the new justice and emergency precinct, and the $120 million Avon River precinct built to make the most of the city's river front. 

The south frame has been scaled back from a park-like environment to business premises interspersed with public laneways and small squares. The precinct is expected to be finished this year as work moves into the last, western-most block. Completion, however, is dependent on the Crown settling landowner disputes.

Other anchor projects, such as the demonstration village and cultural centre, are yet to get out of the ground as plans are made and remade.

Crown-owned land in the south frame and council-owned land at Peterborough Central – the old convention centre site – still await private developments.

Another slow project has been the east frame, where the Crown bought six city blocks promising 1000 new homes to help revitalise the city, later trimming this number to 900.

First finished was the public park running through the site. By last month the Crown's development partner Fletcher had completed 172 units of which just over a third have sold, with further stages under construction.

Sluggish buyer demand, not helped by the slow delivery of the major public rebuilds, has hampered sales of the east frame's dearer and larger properties. East frame homes priced at $600,000 or less have proven popular, while the million-dollar ones have struggled on the market. Fletcher has responded by reworking the range and style of homes and is building more of the smaller apartments.

The city is still waiting for the big drawcards among the anchor projects – the stadium, convention centre, the metro sports facility – on which the rebuild has pinned many of its hopes. 

The first of these finished will be the $475m convention centre Te Pae, due to open in October and already with bookings for several years ahead.  Construction started in 2017, the year it was meant to have been completed, after the Crown abandoned a partnership with an Australian private partner and decided to go it alone. 

However, the first of the hotels meant to form part of the precinct is two years away. Ōtākaro has just applied for resource consent to subdivide the land so private developer the Carter Group can develop up to four hotels.

Also under construction at last is the metro sports facility, a large state-of-the-art pools and courts complex designed to cater for casual users up to top-level sportspeople. Set to open in early 2022, it should help attract major sporting competitions to the city as well as providing amenities for residents lacking since the quakes. 

At the very centre of the city, Cathedral Square remains in damaged and neglected state. A 2014 Cera document said The Square would be finished in mid-2016 and 'once again be the civic heart of Christchurch', and 'be better than ever'.

Nearly six years after that document was released, the square is arguably worse than ever, with broken pavers and tired fittings, parked on by food caravans and tourist stalls. After shelving a full revamp, the council has chosen instead to tidy individual corners instead as new buildings come onstream.

With work on Christ Church Cathedral due to start this autumn and expected to take up to 10 years while occupying public space, the city could spend two decades with the Square broken, if the council waits for that to be finished.

Then there is the stadium, without which major sporting fixtures and rock concerts and the crowds they attract have been by-passing the city. While politicians have debated the cost of the project has been rising an estimated $1 million a month.

The stadium land has been bought and a business case prepared, but plans and the promised Crown funding contribution are not yet approved.

However, this could change within weeks with a cabinet decision on the project due by early March. If approved soon, the stadium would be ready for events by 2024.

Private Rebuild 

From the early days of the rebuild, private developers with insurance cheques got on with construction, starting on the edges of the central city as the cordons moved back. 

Office buildings went up first, especially along Victoria St and the river front. To help boost the central city, the Government commissioned private developers to put up four new office buildings to house about 30 agencies.

In the retail precinct, strict design rules stalled progress until a handful of well-established landlords dipped into their own pockets to buy out smaller landowners and rebuild the City Mall. 

The plan has given the city attractive new buildings interspersed by laneways, but the resulting high rentals have locked out smaller operators and some landlords are quietly subsidising tenants. 

Corporate office and overseas chain stores now dominate the central city. Largely gone are the little spaces for second-hand shops, family-run eateries, and start-ups.

New restaurants, bars and cafes have appeared in stages along Victoria St, Stranges Lane, High St, St Asaph St, The Terrace and most recently Riverside.

High set up and operating costs have squeezed margins for the operators, and while many do a good trade, a steady stream have tipped into receivership and liquidation.

Hospitality operators say that without the central city resident population they were promised, and without the big visitor numbers drawn by a convention centre and stadium, trade is tough going especially in winter.

Private building and restoration work has also created momentum in the innovation and health precincts. Developers restoring old industrial buildings have brought life to areas like the Salt district (St Asaph, Lichfield, Tuam streets).

In the performing arts precinct, a $35m new Court Theatre will start going up this year to join the restored Isaac Theatre Royal and the new Piano theatre, while the Town Hall repair nearby was completed last year.

At the Arts Centre of Christchurch, more than half the 21 heritage buildings have been restored and reopened by the trust which runs the complex. Fundraising and construction to restore the rest is underway.

The existing Catholic Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament is to be demolished and will be rebuilt on a central riverside site alongside a new Catholic school and other church facilities.

In some spots private central city landlords have been accused of holding back the rebuild by not fixing or selling damaged buildings. In response, they have been targeted by the city council and placed on its 'Dirty 30' list. 

Multiple other sites have been cleared but remain vacant or used as car parks, waiting for the market to provide a reason for owners to build on them. 

Housing

Residential property owners have had plenty of their own struggles since 2011. While most have been able to repair, rebuild or relocate their homes, after nine years there are thousands still struggling to resolve claims.

The Earthquake Commission (EQC) has struggled under the weight of 470,000 house, land and contents claims for 194,000 homes across Canterbury. Claims over the $100,000 EQC cap went to private insurers.

EQC and some private insurers setting up their own repair programmes shunted homeowners into long queues. Thousands of homes were written off.

By the start of this year private insurance companies had paid out for 27,700 out of 28,500 properties, with the rest either in the settlement process or in dispute.

As of this month, EQC has 1700 claims still open. There are also close to 400 claims for on-sold over-cap homes which could be eligible for a government payment.

Around 300 dispute cases are waiting to be heard in the High Court, and close to 100 disputes have gone to a new quake disputes tribunal since it was launched last year, of which some have been settled by agreement and four decisions made.

The quake aftermath has led to a major shake-up of both the EQC and domestic insurance policies. A public inquiry into EQC will report back to Government by the end of March.

Across the country, private insurance companies have hiked premiums for quake-prone areas and will now insure homes only to a maximum agreed sum.

While the quakes have thrown up insurance wrangles no-one expected, they also led to Christchurch enjoying the most stable housing market of New Zealand's main centres.

The rebuilding of wrecked homes including the 8000 that were red-zoned has led to 25,000 new homes being built in the city, and more in nearby Selwyn and Waimakariri districts as people moved further west and north.

As well as free-standing homes in post-quake subdivisions, an increasing amount of housing construction is in new medium-density hubs around suburban shopping centres and in inner suburbs as well as the central city.

House construction, while at half the rate of its 2014 peak, remains well above pre-quake levels and this has kept a lid on price rises. Both house prices and rents have been flat for several years.

The average value of a home in the city in January according to Quotable Value was $510,000, compared with $1,050,000 in Auckland, $864,753 in Wellington and $527,000 in Dunedin.

Interest.co.nz's latest affordability report shows young couple buying a first home would need 18 per cent of their take-home pay to fund a mortgage, compared with 40 per cent in Auckland and 30 per cent in Wellington. 

The city's average rent is $388, which after a brief post-quake peak is back at 2013 levels.

Outlook

With Christchurch keen to boost its population, city leaders hope the affordability of homes, as well as the city rebuild and new amenities, will help attract new residents to both suburbs and central city.

The city's estimated central city population of 8000 is still far short of the 20,000 the city council wanted by 2024.

Christchurch's economic growth has slowed since the peak of the rebuild, but the city still has one of the county's lowest unemployment rates.

The city's fastest growing sectors include information technology and telecommunications, wholesaling, accommodation and food services, and transport, logistics and warehousing, and scientific and technical services.

By 2024 all the anchor projects will be completed. With the stadium, convention centre and multi-use arena expected to attract thousands of visitors to the city, existing businesses will benefit and new ones follow.

The city also has new suburban sports facilities and school campuses as a result of the quakes.

Plans for the city's 600 hectare riverside redzoned land on the eastern side of town are ambitious and costly, but early stages are getting under way.

Plans are afoot to extend the tourist tram, cruise ships are returning to Lyttleton, and suburban projects such as New Brighton hot saltwater pools are nearing completion.

The quakes of 2011 triggered unprecedented ideas on how to reshape a city, and implementing those remains a work in progress.

The challenge for the Christchurch in the 2020s will be how to build on those plans to set the city up for a successful future.