Buildings at risk of collapse

Many of downtown Tauranga's older buildings have been revealed as likely to collapse in a moderate strength earthquake.
Tauranga City Council has released a list of 62 buildings from the 110 pre-1976 buildings so far assessed by the council.
Lessons from the big loss of life in Christchurch spurred Mayor Stuart Crosby to say that people had a right to know about the earthquake standards of the buildings they worked in.
His March 8 call for the council to release the information was given further weight only three days later with Japan's double whammy of a massive earthquake and devastating tsunami. Publication of the list was delayed until the 62 building owners served with notices to fix them had been told of the council's intention to go public with the information.
With the exception of the police station, which is on a five-year deadline to be strengthened, the rest of the buildings are on a 10-year deadline.
The council's environmental services manager Peter Frawley said one building owner had threatened the council with a potential legal claim if the information was released.
Legal advice was that the information was already in the public domain because notices to fix were required to be displayed in the premises and it was on the buildings' property files.
Iconic Strand buildings Cobb and Co, Cornerstone Pub, The Lone Star, Crown & Badger, The Bhudda Lounge, The Grumpy Mole, Zeytin and Horny Bull are all on the list. Buildings tenanted by Flannagan's Irish Pub on Hamilton St and Rossco's Cafe and Bar and Bombay Brasserie on Wharf St are also on the list.
A whole stretch of shops and businesses on the harbour side of Devonport Rd are also vulnerable, as is the PSIS building in Grey St, the City Produce Market and Tauranga Central Backpackers in Willow St and the Harbourside City Backpackers on The Strand.
The Grumpy Mole' business manager Anita Duncan said receiving the notice to fix came as no surprise to her or her boss Shane Armstrong of The Armstrong Group, given the age of the building.
Ms Duncan said she would be having a meeting this weekend with Grumpy Mole staff to discuss the issue and make sure they were all aware of the risks so they could decide whether to continue working in the building,
"I just love this old building and it's really horrible to think that this beautiful old building could fall over and have to be replaced."
Lisa and Jorg Burgi own Sober Camel Cafe, one of the tenants of The Churchill Building on Grey St.
Mrs Burgi said her landlord had engaged engineers to look into the issues last year and again since the quake. She was not surprised the building was on the list.
"I don't plan to live in fear that the building might suddenly collapse, as I have never felt an earthquake in this building since we moved in.
"I can't see customers will be too fearful to come into our cafe either."
Ben Gower, owner of the building that houses Cobb and Co and Harbourside City Backpackers on The Strand, said it would cost "hundreds of thousands of dollars" to fix the building.
The council has so far spent three-and-a-half years working to identify earthquake prone buildings, starting in the CBD where there was a higher concentration of older buildings and population. It has completed assessing the CBD's 110 pre-1976 commercial buildings that were potentially at risk and declared that 62 had less than a third of the strength needed to conform with modern building codes.
Work now moves out to the other 440 potentially at-risk buildings around the rest of the city.
Nearly all the notices to fix were served after the building owners failed to respond to letters from the council giving them six months to consider the council's assessment that a building may be earthquake prone. So far two of the 62 buildings have applied for resource consent to do seismic upgrades.
Tauranga Downtown's Earthquake-prone Buildings
(Each building can represent more than one street number)
Monmouth St: 11, 15/19.
The Strand: 27, 41, 45, 49, 51, 55/57, 59, 61, 65, 67, 83, 85, 87/91, 105, 103 and 6/12 Wharf St.
Harington St: 10/14
Hamilton St: 14
Wharf St: 20, 26, 40.
Spring St: 21, 27, 45.
Willow St: 62, 68, 111 (consent obtained for strengthening), 112, 116, 117/121, 123, 124, 128, 136.
Devonport Rd: 19, 22, 24, 26/28, 31, 32/34, 42/44, 46/48, 50, 52, 54/56, 55, 60-64, 63, 66/68, 71, 74/76/78, 77, 79, 83, 86/88, 98/100/102, and 106-108.
Grey St: 45, 36-42, 62, 64.