More than 30 jobs have been created by several tenants in a popular central Dunedin commercial building, offsetting some of the job losses announced around the city recently.
Last week, it was confirmed up to 73 New Zealand Post staff and possibly up to 10 at printers Wickliffe would be laid off, but three of 10 tenants in the Public Trust Building in Moray Pl have boosted total job numbers in recent years from 15 to 47.
A theme for many of the employers in the building is recognition that while trade manufacturing job losses around Dunedin make negative headlines, growth sectors such as information technology, business services, agri-business and information, communications and technology are all playing an increasingly positive role in job creation.
The majority of new staff in the Public Trust Building are in their 20s and 30s, and many come from overseas, often bringing qualifications from the higher echelons of education.
There are 13 companies spread over 10 separate tenancies in the four storey, 85-year-old building, which building owner Chris Barnes has spent five years renovating for almost $3 million, having entirely gutted all but the ground floor during that time.
AbacusBio is largely responsible for the job boost, increasing its staff from 11 to 32 in recent years, plus part-time student staff. It is almost tripling its space, moving from its present 450sq m to 1100sq m on the ground floor.
Its overall focus is contributing to myriad issues of the global food shortage, from on-farm livestock and forage through processing, adding value, exporting and expectations of consumers.
Formerly Abacus Biotech, before a management buy-out in 2007, Abacus Bio acted as a bridge between science and commercialisation for mainly agri-based products, including exporters, producers and consumers, Abacus partner and director Dr Anna Campbell said.
''Not many recognised that 2008 was a record low of world-wide food levels,'' she said.
Dr Campbell said agriculture played a larger economic role, nationally and regionally, than many people realised and the contribution of science and agri-business services could enhance that benefit further.
When asked about New Zealand's attraction for some staff, the focus of Abacus and the boost to its job numbers, Dr Campbell said, ''New Zealand is held in high regard, whether it was on the farm, processing or adding value.''
''I'd like to see Dunedin go out and shout a lot about its successes, because some businesses let themselves go under the radar,'' she said.
Abacus' 32 staff include nine with PhDs and specialist areas of expertise, with eight nationalities represented, mainly in a 20 to 30-year-old age band.
''People coming from elsewhere will bring their own connections which helps us later,'' she said.
While proud that academic high achievers consider coming to New Zealand and Abacus, she noted not all staff held degrees, which was offset by their positive attitude and own specialty areas.
As an ''alternate pathway'' for new and younger staff to consider, there was also an option to eventually gain a shareholding in Abacus.
The company's recent clients included meat processor Alliance Group, milk processor Synlait, NZ King Salmon, Dairy NZ and Beef and Lamb NZ.
A recent client is JBS Australian, a Brazilian-owned meat-processing company which is the largest in the world. It wants
data analysis on its suppliers and stock inventories. Another is Brunei's Government, which is developing an agri-biotech strategy.
In recent years, privately owned Abacus has more than tripled its turnover, along with its staff. It achieved 30% growth last financial year and is targeting 10% to 20% in the immediate years ahead.
About 30% of income was generated from overseas clients, and the target was to raise that percentage, Dr Campbell said.
She returns to China shortly, with the Alliance Group, looking at buyer preferences of lamb products, including Alliance's exports and also domestic Chinese lamb.
Building tenant Craig McAuliffe, of architects McAuliffe Stevens, said it had taken five years to build up goodwill in his former sole-charge company, which now employs seven people and has a ''significant'' amount of Christchurch work from the rebuild.
Most staff are in their 30s, with the most recent recruit originally from Afghanistan, and former staff hailing from China and Germany.
Mr McAuliffe said that in Dunedin, the company's commercial business included architectural work for the Public Trust Building and it had just started the fitting out the ground-floor of the new Abacus floorspace.
Other recent work was for the Southern District Health Board - including its CT scanner suite in Clyde - and high-end residential work for clients in Queenstown.
Staff numbers had steadily increased as the firm gained goodwill, and also from work out of Christchurch, which included 60 houses this year and about 100 next year, Mr McAuliffe said.
Mr Barnes said occupancy rates, with Abacus' pending move, would be about 82% for the historic building.
He said filling A-grade commercial space was not price-driven: it was firstly location, the fitting out, then the earthquake-proof standard and finally the price. The commercial rate for the Public Trust Building is $230 per sq m, gross and fitted out.
With the recent change to building codes because of earthquake concerns, buildings must attain a minimum 35% compliance. Mr Barnes said in its present standard the Public Trust Building was rated at more than 80% compliance and when finished would be 100%.
''Corporates are wanting compliance of at least 80%; while smaller businesses may likely be OK with less.''
Colliers International, also renting space in the building, had increased staff recently, from four to eight, which included branching into valuation, commercial and industrial sales and leasing, agent Dean Collins said when contacted.
New staff included two younger professionals, while in Colliers' Queenstown office its staff of 14 would shortly be boosted by two more, he said.
Mr Barnes said although he had renovated in order to attract ''top tenants'', the commercial property sector in Dunedin remained ''challenging''.
