28 | New MPI complex welcome The new Greymouth facility includes 220sqm of office space and 145sqm of warehouse storage, enabling MPI to accommodate and secure its fisheries vessels. Amalgamated Builders: MPI Office Building T T Hugh de Lacy REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT Staff at the Greymouth office of the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) are looking forward to moving into their new offices in August after the project’s completion by South Island-based main contractor Amalgamated Builders Ltd (ABL). The new Greymouth facility includes 220m2 of office space and 145m2 of warehouse storage, enabling MPI to accommodate and secure its fisheries vessels. “The project will provide a modern and practical facility for our people to work in, with other MPI staff travelling to and from the Coast from time to time to work there too,” the ministry’s director of property and assets, Jason Trimble says. MPI will be a tenant in the building under a lease agreement, with the project being driven, managed and owned by a third party. ABL was founded in Invercargill in 1972 when GR Hill Ltd teamed up with another local builder, Steve Farrant, to form ABL. Graeme Hill of GR Hill Ltd acquired the majority shareholding in the company in 1980, steering ABL through the tough times of the 1980s and 1990s by being prepared to tackle any job from wharves to woolsheds. Still South Island owned and operated, and now led by Managing Director Richard Johnstone, ABL has offices in Christchurch, Dunedin, Queenstown and Invercargill, and a long list of major completed projects throughout the country both on its own account, and in alliances with other builders. It employs more than 200 staff across the four branches and prides itself on directly employing well over 120 site-based foremen, carpenters and apprentices. The senior management team at ABL have years of experience on projects of varying types and sizes, giving them a unique insight into the complex layers of stakeholder management. Beyond the general client-builder model in construction, ABL recognises the need for alliances that has evolved over time as government and private industry contracts become larger and more complex. A typical example was the building of the Milton Prison in Dunedin which required larger main contractors, led by ABL, to operate as sub-contractors to deliver the project for a national Tier One contractor who, without the collaborative agreement, could not have delivered the project on time. Other examples of ABL-led alliances delivering the goods in a shortened timeframe include Dunedin’s Forsythe Barr covered stadium and Bluff’s Tiwai Point aluminium smelter. Following on from these developments, ABL became one of the three founding members of the NZ Construction Alliance which is now made up of nine individual contractors, all stand-out performers in their own regions, providing a nationwide reach for their services, and to drive improvement and partnership within the industry. ABL, along with its alliance partners, utilises a supply chain of more than a thousand sub-contractors, allowing it to take on projects anywhere in the country, safe in the confidence in the ability and quality of the supply chain. The company offers the full range of construction-related services, taking on everything from small maintenance projects to major building ones such as the $125m Invercargill Central Development. Our team of specialist foundation and slab installation experts make life easy for you. 027 EZYFOUNDZ (027 3993686) sam@ezyfoundz.co.nz ezyfoundz.co.nz CONSTRUCTION • DESIGN & BUILD • PROJECT MANAGEMENT • SUPPLY CHAIN 03 341 2170 | Unit 2, 21 Birmingham Drive www.abl.co.nz | christchurch@abl.co.nz
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