Firm ready to return to CBD after seven years
Seven years after the collapse of their premises killed a director and trapped staff, accountancy firm Leech and Partners is ready to move back into the central city.
The firm’s Christchurch offices were on level two of the Pyne Gould Corporation building when it collapsed in the February 22, 2011, earthquake.
Director Philip McDonald was one of 18 people who lost their lives in the building. In addition to his accountancy, McDonald was well known for his work on the boards of the Crusaders and Mid-Canterbury rugby organisations.
The collapse of the building in the earthquake left several staff members trapped, including senior accountant Nick Walls.
Walls was pinned under rubble for 10 hours, seriously injured and unable to move, until rescuers crawled in to rescue him.
Now a director of the firm, he has had a long recovery and rehabilitation, which included learning to walk again.
The firm moved into offices in Mandeville St in Riccarton on a sixyear lease after the earthquake, but is on the lookout for central-city offices again for its 20 staff.
Walls said as a well-established Christchurch business it was important to return to the CBD ‘‘despite what happened seven years ago’’.
‘‘Our firm made a commitment to stay in Christchurch following the Canterbury earthquakes,’’ he said. It also has an office in Ashburton. Rebuild progress, including the completion of new buildings and amenities, helped the firm decide the time was right to move back into the central city, Walls said.
It is hunting for bigger, modern offices in an existing or planned building within walking distance to Cashel St shops, parking and buses.
The firm’s leasing agent, Savills managing director Jonathan Lyttle, said Leech and Partners was one of several businesses that had ‘‘watched the CBD rebuild closely’’ and now had the confidence to commit to returning.
The opening of several big new developments in the central city had been a catalyst for some making their decision, Lyttle said.