The tough just get tougher – Grenadier CHCH City turns 20 years

Harcourts’ Grenadier Christchurch City office will be the first building to be rebuilt in the CBD’s Red Zone many years after business owner Robert McCormack bought it.

Grenadier Christchurch City started as a small office with 8 people morphing into 13 offices with the Christchurch City office being the largest and most successful of Harcourts franchise network worldwide.

Known as the Grenadier Castle, the Madras St building towered five stories high and was the envy of other Harcourts offices. Over $1Million was spent on the ground floor alone which housed its own cafe, purpose built auction rooms, complete with flat screens to broadcast auctions to the internet. Flat screens were even placed in the bathrooms. Many more millions were spent on the other four floors which housed residential sales, commercial sales, commercial property management, business brokerage, and the very
important support network that included the administration, design and accounts teams.

“Grenadier Castle was the apple of our eye. We’ve had many Harcourts groups visit us from all over New Zealand and the world especially to see this facility; it really was ahead of its time. As time went on, the building aged, as things do, but I ensured the fit-out and the technology was still state of the art,” says Robert.

With the one year anniversary of the September earthquake recently passed, the events of that day are still fresh for the resident stalwarts of Grenadier who have battled over 8000 earthquakes since. In his 33 years  of real estate, Robert says, as a Cantabrian, father, husband and business owner he has had to dig deep to lead his team and peers through times where, sadly lives have been taken, homes are in ruins, businesses have ended and careers have been lost.

“It has been one of the saddest times in my life watching the anguish felt by my team in particular the Madras St team. The sheer horror of the quakes is still pretty fresh. Our castle, which luckily took no lives in the September or February earthquakes, sadly became uninhabitable and was further robbed, as its instability succumbed to the shake of the June earthquake taking it away forever.” “We lost many offices – Sumner, Lyttleton, Cashmere, Barrington and Avonside. For the first time in my 33 years in real estate I had to make some of my Harcourts family redundant; I had to cut salaries and forgive honouring my commitment to our Survivors Club which usually involves an overseas trip.”

“Watching some of my team lose their homes and the astounding grief and devastation for our accountant who lost her daughter, has really impacted on everybody.”

To continue business after such devastation to ones livelihood would seem like a long journey many would not want to undertake – except for Robert.

He has made the commitment and is working tirelessly to reinstate Grenadier into the CBD Red Zone. His goal is to do that by the 2012 anniversary of the February quake. The new Harcourts building was the first building confirmed for a permit to rebuild in the Red Zone and Robert is adamant he will do everything to make it the first one to be completed with commencement of construction estimated 6 weeks from now.

“The vision is to re-establish the city office and move the 100-strong Madras St team, who now reside at Moorhouse Ave, into the new castle. They have been working from a warehouse in Moorhouse Ave continuing to deliver solutions, advice and support for their clients.

The Christchurch City Office has been number one for turnover for its size nationally within Harcourts for seven years and top Sales Consultant Alison Aitken has been in the top 2 positions nationally and locally for ten years. With a track record like that, Harcourts Group Chief Operations Officer and Shareholder Jo Clifford says that if anyone can turn a business around Robert can.

“Robert operates with a ‘high performance’ attitude and now after the earthquakes has managed to use his skills and resilience to continue to run a business that has had no choice but to be diverse and flexible,” says Jo.

“The intensity and strength of Grenadiers operational systems has significantly reduced interruptions for clients which is an amazing achievement considering the environment they are working in.”

Looking back to his 20 years with Harcourts Robert attests his success, especially through the recent trials and tribulations, to having partners and team members that have the same vision and direction as him, working for the good of company.

“I have surrounded myself with amazing people that have had faith and trust, in my ability to grow and succeed in business. They have given me the respect to lead Grenadier to be the top franchise worldwide for many years.”

“Without the right attitude, energy, enthusiasm, dedication, commitment, focus and passion none of this would be possible.” “I am so driven to rebuild this business and the offices we have lost to put Grenadier back on the podium once more.”

Robert’s real estate career began at Collins Real Estate where he was the number one agent. After the merging, of then Harcourt and Co with Collins Real Estate in 1985,

Harcourts Real Estate Ltd was formed and Robert became the number one agent for Harcourts, in its first year. His career went from strength to strength and he considers his ‘Grammy’ award being his induction into the Harcourts Hall of Fame in 2004 for his contribution to the Group followed by his ‘Oscar’ award, as he became a member of the Fellowship of New Zealand Institute of Management in 2006.