Property owners launch stinging attack on CERA

The Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority today published another series of Notices to Take Land, as property owners go on the attack.

The 70-odd notices are designations over private properties for the various central Christchurch precincts CERA wants to create.

They enable CERA to compulsorily acquire the properties if sale agreements cannot be struck with landowners.

At the same time, a group of property owners has gone on the attack against CERA and says the development blueprint needs a major overhaul.

“Christchurch is functioning at its pre-quake levels without a central business district. Businesses have shown resilience, the central city is no longer as critical to the functioning of the local economy,” the group says.

The City Owners Rebuild Entity which produced the report is led by developer Ernest Duval and businessman Dean Marshall.

Their report echoes similar sentiments reported by NBR ONLINE. They say the city has been locked down too long, business will not wait while the uncertainty lasts, and firms are moving to other parts of the city on long-term leases.

“The uncertainty is driving investment to peripheral areas such as Victoria St, Lincoln Rd, Moorhouse Ave, Riccarton, Show Place and further afield," the report says.

“These peripheral areas are gaining momentum and will forever become significant business zones to challenge the primacy of the CBD going forward… The announcement of the (CERA) blueprint has not attracted new office tenants to the central city.”

The harshest comments are reserved for the compulsory acquisition powers of CERA.

The business group describes the valuation process as “disingenuous, which is cultivating a level of distrust and suspicion”.

“Owners feel aggrieved by the process and do not feel there is any degree of negotiation given that there can only ever be one outcome with the threat of compulsory acquisition. This is not a willing seller willing buyer scenario.”

Another stumbling block is CERA’s insistence on retail developments no smaller than 7500sq m. Smaller players are squeezed out.

“CERA has decided on a top down command-and-control approach to the decision making but there are strong feelings that this approach should be modified to create a platform of greater engagement and consultation … so the city can moved forward more under the San Francisco model where council and business representatives made decisions jointly. “

“The top down approach has resulted in a lack of consultation with many small building owners who are well aware they do not fit with the CERA grand scheme. This is unfortunate as it limits individuality and retards renewal by causing further disengagement and capital flight.”

c.hutch@clear.net.nz