Victoria University, which has halls of residence vacant over the summer and the unoccupied Karori campus, put out the call for businesses to make use of the spaces.
Kitomba, a software company based in Wellington, was the first to put up its hand.
Its 600m² headquarters in a Taranaki Street office block sustained moderate damage to two of its floors and the building has been closed until further notice.
For Kitomba’s managing director Tom Murphy, business had to return to normal as soon as possible. “Our software services over 2,500 salons and spas across four countries. We have to supply customers seven days a week, including running a call centre that receives about 1,000 calls a week.”
Competition for finding temporary office space was tough. Tom viewed 12 other sites in the central city before hearing about Boulcott Hall, which had a high New Building Standard earthquake rating and enough space for Kitomba’s 45 Wellington employees. The Hall was also empty as its 173 student residents had left two weeks earlier.
Wi-fi and high speed internet were promptly set up by Victoria ITS staff, bedrooms across two floors were converted into offices, and the common rooms were transformed into a mixture of open plan offices and social areas.
“One of the things I was keen to do was recreate the social fabric of our open-plan office. We’ve got two people in a room so everyone has a buddy, and a group work station in one of the communal rooms. We instigated many of our standard practises such as free fruit, tea and coffee, end-of-week drinks, as well as a few special treats to welcome and settle our staff in to our new premises.”
There is also a lounge with a TV, table tennis and pool tables on the ground floor, which staff are invited to use during breaks.
For Tom, it took just three days from learning about the space to having staff working in the temporary office.
“The team from Victoria has been extremely helpful. Head of Hall Tolly Auva’a and his crew, Victoria’s ITS and the building people who talked us through the building documents—they’ve been pulling out all of the stops. Not only organised the business side of things, but also the human side of things, and we’re now getting close to running at full capacity.”
Victoria’s chief operating officer Mark Loveard says the University was quick to make the decision to make its unoccupied spaces available to businesses.
“Victoria University’s buildings performed well during the earthquake, which put us in the fortunate position of being able to help others. As an active member of the Wellington community, we were keen to do what we could to assist local businesses to get up and running again.”