Urban farm to feed Christchurch: Cultivate Christchurch
Bailey Peryman is on a mission to feed residents and visitors to Christchurch with quality organic produce grown in the heart of the city, all while helping disadvantaged youths. Bailey, along with youth worker Fiona Stewart, set up social enterprise Cultivate Christchurch in 2015, using a vacant site on the […]
A lifeline for heritage: Stockman Group
Shaun Stockman was born in Lyttelton and grew up in Cass Bay. His passion and interest in heritage buildings and property investment began at age 24 when he purchased his first residential investment property, a small historic cottage in Strickland Street. Now he is in the process of restoring the […]
Expanding your living spaces: Stratco
Now is the perfect time to prepare for the long, hot days of summer and more outdoor living. The expert team at Stratco has the skills to help you create a space that can be enjoyed throughout the year, with its own range of unique verandas and louvres – from […]
CBD Anchor Projects: Mark O’Loughlin
Christchurch’s Anchor Projects are key initiatives to attract people into the central city. They are all about people – making the central city a place where people want to live, work and visit for social and cultural activities. At long last we are now seeing physical evidence that major new […]
A four-fold favourite: DJ Hewitt Builders
Great things come out of a trusting two-way client relationship – Daryl and Tara of DJ Hewitt Builders, and Griff and Maree Lash of Estuary Veterinary Clinic, are testament. Originally neighbours two decades ago, ‘take one’ was in 2002 when Daryl built a mezzanine floor for the Ferrymead-based clinic’s 21-cage […]
Part of a legacy: Refurbished Town Hall
The opportunity to get an exclusive preview of the extensive refurbishment of the Town Hall saw me standing on the old site of the Crowne Plaza one fine spring day. Now a Gap-Filler-style area full of food caravans with happy, relaxed locals meandering through, memories came flooding back, reminding me […]
The Influencers Column: Tony Mounce
The relatively flat housing market in Christchurch is fuelling interest from first home buyers keen to capitalise on the largely stagnant prices. But buying your first home is far from easy, although KiwiSaver and HomeStart grants are fantastic tools to help get onto the property ladder. A young couple recently came […]
The Influencers Column: John Bridgman
Ōtākaro recently ran a series of walking tours around the central city as part of Explore Christchurch, a campaign to encourage locals to come and see what’s going on in town. With around 300 people joining us across the eight tours, the level of interest surpassed our expectations. At first glance, […]
The Influencers Column: Ivan Iafeta
The Christchurch City Council recently announced the development of an action plan to increase the pace of regeneration in Christchurch’s city centre. The stimulus was an assessment by Regenerate Christchurch of progress in the central city and five key recommendations regarding leadership, growth, people, activation and implementation. The council’s action […]
The Influencers Column: Matt Harris
One of the repeated issues that we see in NZ business is the ongoing difficulty in attracting skilled labour. In the construction sector, an area often in the news lately, we are faced with a continual shortage of trained and experienced engineers, architects, planners etc. If left unchecked, this can impact […]












