Building institute returns to capital
AFTER 10 years in the big smoke, the New Zealand Institute of Building is heading back to the capital.
The institute’s chief executive Malcolm Fleming said while most organisations were moving their head offices to Auckland, they were on the move back to Wellington.
The motivation for the move was a need to be closer to Government and more accessible to the proliferation of fellow construction institutes and industry stakeholders that call Wellington home, Fleming said.
‘‘The construction industry by nature is a collaborative environment . . . [and] if we truly want to be advancing the performance of our industry and to foster construction innovation and research, we need to work cohesively with others, and that is best achieved with a base in the heart of the Wellington CBD.
‘‘You always hear about these companies going north and it’s excelled in the last few years.
‘‘It was also not that long ago that John Key said Wellington
Malcolm Fleming was dying – that’s not true and we are coming back for really good reasons. Wellington is the hub of decision-making.’’
As the chief executive, Fleming said he needed to be more engaged and the move back to Wellington would ensure that.
For Fleming, it is like returning home. He has been commuting to Auckland since March – first as acting chief executive, then as chief executive.
‘‘It was wearing me a bit thin.’’
Fleming was positive about the future of Wellington’s construction industry.
‘‘After the Christchurch earthquake, what we all found were projects for new builds stopped because the large property owners couldn’t spend a million dollars on a new build, they needed to spend that on securing their current assets.
‘‘Finance as a resource was very finite. But what’s going on now is the building and engineering is getting quite busy.’’
Work to strengthen Wellington’s Majestic Centre – an $83.5 million project – was a clear example of that, Fleming said.
‘‘Things are starting to move, but it’s been tough. The whole construction industry really is quite patchy, but it’s ticking along.’’
The institute originally moved its head office from Wellington to Auckland in mid-2000s to be closer to their bulk membership.
The New Zealand Institute of Building is the professional institute in New Zealand for building and construction professionals who share a common interest in improving the standing of the building profession.