Wellington's largest mall has been found to be earthquake prone, with 50 tenants affected, although the mall will remain open.
Westfield Queensgate Shopping Centre in Lower Hutt. Photo: Screenshot / GoogleMaps
Parts of the mall were shut for six months after the 2016 Kaikoura earthquake, as cinemas in the complex were demolished.
Three out of 10 buildings at Queensgate Mall in Lower Hutt have now been found to be under 34 percent of the earthquake resilience standards.
The ANZ bank has vacated its staff from the mall.
Stride Investment Management owns the property and chief executive Phillip Littlewood said they would work to get the building over 67 percent.
"The works are not particularly extensive, so we expect all works across all three buildings to be completed within a 12-month period. And I should add it is expected to cost a few million dollars, but not tens of millions of dollars - it's actually a relatively small project in the scheme of the assets."
Mr Littlewood said they had informed all the tenants.
ANZ pulled its staff at the mall out on Tuesday after an engineering report showed the branch was not up to the seismic standards the bank set for its sites, a bank spokesperson said.
He declined to comment what the standards were, or to say who ordered the report.
Staff in both the hairdressing salon and the nearby pharmacy told RNZ earlier today they had not known why the bank was closed and wanted to know what was going on.
"Absolutely," said a pharmacy worker. "We were shut for seven months during the regeneration of the mall, so we lost millions during that loss of trade.
"There is potential for impact on us."
ANZ said the branch was closed indefinitely and staff had been transferred to its central Hutt and Petone branches.
