Operations staff on the move

(Left to right) Director Property and Campus Development Tanya Syddall, Manager Project Delivery Wes Jenkins, and Chief Operating Officer Stephen Willis at the Plaza Building reception.

Many University of Otago Operations Group staff are moving into the Plaza Building next to Forsyth Barr Stadium in coming weeks - a move which will save space, save money, enhance collaboration, create more student-facing space on the central campus, and reduce risks.

Chief Operating Officer Stephen Willis says the staff will be using bookable desks, which will save space in line with the University's aims under its Pae Tata Strategic Plan to 2030 and also recognises many staff now work more flexibly and regularly work both on and off campus.

Stephen says some vacated buildings could be sold or leased out, generating income and cutting University occupancy costs such as as maintenance, power, cleaning and insurance. Staff have also already left a leased building at 62 Albany Street.

Some buildings or sites may also have the potential to be income-earning residential accommodation for domestic and international students, he says.

Non-heritage buildings that need cost-prohibitive work to meet modern seismic standards will be mothballed or demolished, reducing both risks and ongoing maintenance or future replacement costs. For example, replacing the dilapidated Property Services building at 111 Albany Street would have cost about $27 million, now it is being vacated and likely to be demolished in the coming years.

Why?

"Our Pae Tata - Strategic Plan to 2030 pledges to reduce our space use year-on-year because we cannot afford the costs associated with continuing to occupy the amount of space we are using, and we are not using our existing space to its full potential," Stephen says.

The University of Otago Plaza Building.

Space is the University's second biggest expense, costing it for rates, insurance, energy, repairs, maintenance, cleaning, waste disposal, security, leases, property management and depreciation (buildings losing value over time).

"The Operations Group is working hard to save space and co-locate staff into safer and more appropriate buildings on the periphery of the main campus. This is because space is a critical and valuable resource that we have a collective responsibility to manage well for our University's financial sustainability and to support an approach that seeks to redefine how we can use our buildings and space," he says.

Stephen wants to thank his staff for dealing with the disruption involved and is looking forward to the opportunity of being more available and present with his teams and staff by regularly spending some of his working week hot desking with them in the Plaza Building.

"I'm also looking forward to seeing some of the geographically fragmented teams, that rely heavily on each other, being co-located," he says.