Eat Streat businesses closed for earthquake strengthening

Ambrosia owner Kris Beehre inside the refubished space. Photo / Stephen Parker

Four businesses on Rotorua's al fresco dining precinct Eat Streat have been, or will be closed for earthquake strengthening this year. As work winds up on two of the businesses affected, it is about to start on another two, forcing their temporary closure. Zizi Sparks reports.

A number of businesses in a popular Rotorua dining precinct are facing work to bring their buildings up to code.

Eat Streat's Lady Janes Ice Cream Parlour and part of Ambrosia are closed for work to increase the buildings' structural compliance with the current building code. Work on Sobar and Atticus Finch is to come.

Ambrosia owner Kris Beehre said they had partially closed on June 24 and were expected to reopen fully on Thursday. "It's been a bit of a hassle but the staff have done really well."

He said business had been helped by having a busy school holiday period.

"We're down on the same time last year but not as much as anticipated."

Beehre said the other half of the building had to have structural work next year, most likely in May, and expected to be fully closed then.

But they turned the work into a positive, taking the chance to make changes to the bar, including a new paint job and tidy up.

"I'm really looking forward to being fully open.

"We're just coping with what we've got."

Rotorua's al fresco dining precinct Eat Streat. Photo / File

Ambrosia duty manager George Thompson said they were serving drinks out of the restaurant's outdoor caravan bar and weren't able to serve things like cocktails but business hadn't been too badly affected because they could still partially operate.

"It's been a bit funny with the bar side, we've had to cut our restaurant in half pretty much. We've made it work but I do miss our bar."

Meanwhile, Lady Janes Ice Cream Parlour is fully closed for business.

"There's been a lot of people coming in to ask where the icecream shop is," Thompson said.

Lady Janes' owner could not be reached for comment because the phone line appeared to be temporarily disconnected.When work finishes on the two businesses it will start at Sobar and Atticus Finch. Both are expected to close from Fridayuntil September 10.

The Atticus Finch operators could not be reached but the website confirmed the business would be closed for earthquake strengthening for those dates.

The sign outside of Lady Janes. Photo / Stephen Parker

Sobar owner and Eat Streat Collective chairman Jason Wright confirmed earthquake strengthening work was taking place at the four businesses with the same landlord.

"It's been premeditated for the last couple of years. They've worked in really closely with us, doing it at historically the quietest time of year."

Wright said the closure would have the least impact possible due to the time of year and it was also a chance to finish an internal fit-out of the bar. He said the public shouldn't be concerned about safety because it was simply bringing the buildings up to standards.

Rotorua Lakes Council's operations group manager Henry Weston confirmed building consent worth $150,000 had been issued on June 13 for seismic upgrade work on the building and that work had started.

"The work is being undertaken to increase the building's structural compliance with the current Building Code.

"The owners of this building had a partial earthquake assessment done which was provided to council in June 2018. The assessed part of the building was found to be earthquake-prone with less than 35 per cent of the New Building Standard."

Weston said the council adhered to the Building (Earthquake-prone Building) Amendment Act 2016 which came into effect on July 1, 2017.

"This is a nationally consistent system for managing earthquake-prone buildings and changes the way they are identified, assessed and managed.​"

He said the council encouraged building owners to get their buildings assessed, provide more information or provide an existing engineer's report to the council so it could update its records and notify the owners of the building status.

"If an Earthquake Prone Building Notice is issued, the building owner has up to 25 years to complete the work, depending on the classification of the building. (Profile or Priority)."

Rotorua currently has 33 buildings listed as earthquake-prone including several on Fenton and Tutanekai Sts.