ABOVE: The Lichfield Street building co-owned by Mr Kepes is one of many that seemed relatively unscathed on Saturday but, following literally hundreds of aftershocks - and closer council inspection - is now destined for demolition. Insurance won't cover
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ABOVE: The Lichfield Street building co-owned by Mr Kepes is one of many that seemed relatively unscathed on Saturday but, following literally hundreds of aftershocks - and closer council inspection - is now destined for demolition. Insurance won't cover the losses.
Christchurch entrepreneur Ben Kepes impressed many earlier this week when, after waiting for the council which failed to appear, he found a private engineer to "certify" his four-story building safe, and gamely set about DIY repairs.
Later in the week, Mr Kepes wound up many with his claim that Canterbury was doing fine from government, EQC, corporate and insurance assistance - people who wanted to donate money should send it somewhere it was genuinely needed, like Haiti.
But yesterday was not so good for the can-do Cantabrian.
The council finally turned up at the Lichfield St building he co-owns – and delivered it a yellow card (all buildings are getting a red card, yellow card or green card) –meaning his three businesses within it must relocate.
These include Cactus Climbing, which operated a small factory making outdoor clothing and equipment for retailers nationwide, Diversity, an IT consultancy, and coffee bean and barista gear supplier C4 coffee.
On Saturday, Mr Kepes was optimistic. But since then there have been literally hundreds of aftershocks – and of course the more detailed verdict of council engineers.
He has now come to the realisation that his building is destined for demolition.
So now, Mr Kepes is out on the street, looking for 300 square metres of space.
Suddenly, life after the quake is looking a little more complicated.
"Luckily we have an excellent insurance broker ... and, although nowhere near sufficient to cover our losses, we have a reasonable degree of insurance cover," Mr Kepes wrote on his quake journal today.
Does he still stand by his early comments, NBR asked this morning.
"Will reply soon. It's [bleeped] down here," replied Mr Kepes.
"That'll teach me."
