The Blue Baths at the end of November, 2022. Photo / Mead Norton
The Blue Baths at the end of November, 2022. Photo / Mead Norton
Two Rotorua buildings stand less than a kilometre apart. Both are earthquake-prone, but only one is closed.
Jo Romanes, the former leaseholder of the now-closed Blue Baths, says she is confused and frustrated a nearby Pak’nSave can continue operating while the heritage building had to close.
Blue Baths’ landlord, Rotorua Lakes Council, has defended its closure decision, saying the risk of ongoing use was unacceptable.
The building closed to the public in January 2021 after a detailed seismic assessment found structural integrity concerns. It achieved 15 per cent of the New Building Standard (NBS).
The Pak’nSave building is also 15 per cent of NBS and remains open, with a notice from October stating it is earthquake-prone displayed in-store. Plans to upgrade the building were under way, and it had advice from seismic experts it could stay open in the meantime.
Pak'nSave Rotorua has an EPB notice in its window. Photo / Laura Smith
Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment guidance, released in July, said there was no legal requirement to close a building based solely on a low NBS rating.
“An NBS rating is not a predictor of building failure in an earthquake and buildings with low NBS ratings are not imminently dangerous,” building performance and engineering manager Dr Dave Gittings said in a statement.
“Understanding the relative vulnerability of different building elements, the potential consequences of failure of these elements, and options to mitigate that risk is more important than the overall NBS rating for a building.”
Building owners could remain on-site while seismic remediation work was planned, funded and undertaken.
Blue Baths former leaseholder Jo Romanes. Photo / Mead Norton
Romanes said she had a business plan with an aim to revitalise Blue Baths and grow her business while addressing seismic issues.
She said the plan had been approved by the council and had structural and geotechnical engineers working on it, with a transitional lease on the Category 1 heritage building while the proposal was explored. The proposal did not extensively cover seismic issues.
In 2020, the engineers provided a report that found foundation issues.
The council completed its own seismic assessment when Romanes applied for resource consent.
“The rest is history, really,” she said. Romanes’ lease officially ended last month.
The council’s detailed seismic assessment found the building was compromised by ground conditions, as a significant portion of the underlying soils beneath the site was potentially liquefiable in an earthquake. This could lead to the failure of the foundation system and, as a result, the structure above, “which can be a catastrophic failure”.
Romanes said fixing damage associated with a leaking pool and subsequent issues with water pooling was estimated to cost between $4 million and $6m.
She estimated the cost of a refresh and facelift to get the building to an operable standard would cost about $12m, excluding the more extensive seismic repair and cost escalations.
Asked if Romanes thought the council upheld its responsibility as a landlord, she said it did do some maintenance, but said there was a lack of “big-picture” thinking and planning for the future.
Foodstuffs spokeswoman Emma Wooster said Pak’nSave took the safety of customers and teams seriously.
“Each year, the Foodstuffs North Island co-operative invests around $100m in our buildings and on transforming our locally owned and operated co-op stores. This transformation work includes making sure our buildings comply with seismic requirements.”
She said it had lodged a consent with the council to upgrade the Rotorua building.
The application included seismic strengthening works, replacing the roof and making interior improvements such as new refrigeration units and new checkouts.
“The store has been assessed by seismic experts, and the advice we have received is that the store can continue to remain open in the meantime.”
Buildings that have been identified as being earthquake-prone by territorial authorities like Rotorua Lakes Council need to be added to an MBIE register.
Blue Baths is not yet listed, and a council spokesperson said the process of identifying earthquake-prone buildings was ongoing, with four years left to complete the work.
Pak’nSave Rotorua was on the list and had until 2047 to do seismic works. In medium-level seismic risk areas such as Rotorua, building owners in non-priority buildings have 25 years to finish the work.
In response to Romanes’ comments and concerns, the council’s organisational enablement deputy chief executive, Thomas Collé, said the decision to close Blue Baths was made under the council’s Seismic Policy and Risk Reduction Framework for Council Buildings.
It applied to all council-owned buildings that accommodate staff and/or the public and which could pose a risk to health and safety due to a seismic event.
Under the policy, buildings assessed to be under 34 per cent of NBS will either be relocated or strengthened to meet the target strengthening level. In this instance, the decision was to close the building.
“Council has legal obligations for staff and public safety, and we take those responsibilities very seriously.
“We do not make decisions to close council buildings lightly, but given all the information we have, we deem the risk to allow ongoing use of the building, in its current state, to be unacceptable.
“Our responsibilities for public safety are always the main consideration, and this is balanced with expert information and advice, the probability of something like an earthquake happening and the potential consequences of that. The same level of considerations would apply to potentially re-opening.”
The Blue Baths. Photo / Mead Norton
When asked what work would need to be done for it to consider the building safe enough, he said as a bare minimum, it would require it to be above 33 per cent NBS, and it would then do more work to investigate options to achieve 67 per cent or above.
“We do not know at this time what work would be required. We expect the future of the Blue Baths to be part of the next Long Term Plan cycle.”
The cost of the work was not known, he said.
As for Romanes’ business plans, which she said included seismic issues, Collé said the council supported the proposal and a resource consent was submitted in early June 2020,subject to the final detailed seismic assessment.
“Council’s detailed seismic assessment and geotechnical reports were completed at the end of the transitional lease, well after the business proposal and resource consent were submitted.
“The business proposal did not address the issues subsequently identified in the [assessment], and no information about how seismic issues would be addressed has been shared with us.”
He said there had been ongoing discussions with Romanes and was happy to meet again.
Regular checks and maintenance to ensure the building maintained its warrant of fitness were ongoing, he said.
Romanes said a meeting was held last Tuesday between Rotorua Mayor Tania Tapsell, Deputy Mayor Sandra Kai Fong and Collé to discuss the building’s future.
She said it went well and she was encouraged by what was said. She had been told councillors asked for the topic to be included in the next council meeting.
