By Gareth Vaughan
Bank of New Zealand's Harbour Quays building in Wellington, where about 1,200 staff are based, looks set to be closed for longer than initially expected after the recent spate of earthquakes in central New Zealand.
A BNZ spokeswoman told interest.co.nz the bank was planning to start a "graduated return" to the building in about nine weeks time.
The Harbour Quays building, completed in 2009, has been shut since the July 21 earthquake. After that quake BNZ said the building was structurally sound but, due to internal damage caused by burst pipes, would be closed for at least six to eight weeks.
The BNZ spokeswoman said last Friday's quake didn't cause any more major damage.
"There was a broken window on the exterior of the building and a few more ceiling tiles came down but we had engineers through the building again on Sunday and they cleared it again as structurally sound," she said.
"The main remediation work we'll be doing is to replace the ceilings while we continue to dry out the floors."
BNZ's latest General Disclosure Statement, issued yesterday, said no provision had been made as a result of the quakes due to the uncertainty of the extent of potential losses, but these weren't expected to be material.
Staff based in the building have been working at other BNZ locations and from home with some call centre staff travelling to Auckland.
The building is owned by CentrePort Wellington.
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