Philip's story

Braveheart Chch

There's a back story to this week's Braveheart Chch, and its personal...

Just over 12 months ago we decided to bring the annual Ryman conference back home to Chch for the first time since the EQ - we wanted to celebrate how far we had come as a city. But first we needed a venue - and i had nearly given up on the cause - that's when i discovered the Piano (or at least an artists impression) and i thought 'wow' - thats our venue!  

 But i knew we were going to have a hard job selling Chch to the people outside Chch - it was going to be a hard act to follow after the Langham Melbourne and Te Papa. Thats when we came up with the theme of Manhattan in the 1930's - our metaphor for Christchurch - a city rebuilding after a period of major adversity, a patchwork of building sites and cranes and a city centre full of construction workers. Sound familiar?

The conference was a roaring success - the Piano was an outstanding venue - Ferrymead was a winner - and the Awards night at Wigram was possibly our best yet. And yes, we surveyed everyone, and the feedback was universal - believe it or not it was rated the best yet. But the 'out of towners' also thought Chch looked sad and depressing.   

That got me thinking... and you know how dangerous that is!

So on day 1 post Ryman when I rocked up to Andrews portacom I found that Andrew had a similar experience with the Lions supporters who stayed at the Rendevous - they had a great time in Chch (and wouldnt wish to be anywhere else). But there was this disconnect between what they felt - the energy, goodwill, warmth and optimism of the people and the appearance of the city centre - vast vacant tracts, derelict buildings and road cones for Africa. 

Braveheart Chch was born.   

I started spending time getting up to speed with city centre rebuild. The Govt and council were continuing to disappoint us, the big development cos were missing in action and the people leading the rebuild were the local developers - Tim, Anthony, Richard and co - they were the only ones who had the balls and belief to invest in the city. Just like Manhattan in the depression needed the Rockefellers - Chch needed people with capital, lots of it, and a willingness to take a huge punt and recreate a city we could be proud of.

And i quickly worked out that the pivotal project was the Crossing. Now i'm not big on shopping malls but i know how important good shopping is to Tracey - and im pretty sure she is not alone! And the excitement around the H&M opening spoke volumes. We finally had a mall which felt like you could be in Melbourne, or anywhere in the world. It was ambitious, risky but clearly was attracting loads of people back to the city.

Philip is a very private man, and sure he is wealthy, but as ive learnt people dont get wealthy by sitting on their hands doing nothing. And every great city needs people like Philip - and i hope the Crossing is an extraordinarily success financially - he deserves it for having the vision to create and back two iconic buildings. Buildings which are helping recreate a city we can proudly invite our friends to visit.

This weeks Braveheart was very reluctant - in true Chch fashion he was more inclined to keep his head down. It took all of our persuasive powers to get to him to talk publicly.  

This weeks post is not only a tribute to Philip - its a tribute to all of the Chch property developers - love them or hate them - by god we need them!

I warned you this was personal...

And yes Darron Charity (Chats), thanks for asking the question that im sure many of you are thinking - why did we decide to feature Philip as this weeks Braveheart. 

He was my nomination.