Construction boss moves heaven and earth for new $50m HQ

Construction boss Scott Power is moving heaven and earth to get his company’s new $50m national headquarters built in Brisbane’s bayside. See the pictures.

Construction boss Scott Power has successfully relocated a century-old bayside church building to Iona College to pave the way for the company’s new $50m national headquarters.

The BMD chief executive last week oversaw the relocation of the historic former Baptist Church at 168 Bay Tce in Wynnum Central to a new home at the college in Lindum.

The relocation, which involved two trucks moving the building under escort in the early hours of Friday morning, will make way for the new five-storey HQ that also will feature retail space and accommodate more than 300 workers. BMD is currently located at the Port of Brisbane but has outgrown that space. It’s a homecoming of sorts for the Power clan as the company, which is now Australia’s largest privately owned civil contractor, was founded by Scott’s dad MickPower in the bayside suburb in the late 1970s.

“BMD has a deep history in the Wynnum Manly community,” says Scott Power (illustrated). “My father has lived in the area since he was two.”

The church, which is more than a century old, will be restored and used by the college. Iona College father Michael Twigg says the church will be restored to its former glory and help keep community history alive.

It isn’t the first time the church has been moved and in 1930 the building was shifted from Edith Tce to Bay Tce. The Baptist congregation sold the building to BMD in the early 2000s when they moved to a more modern church in Kianawah Rd, Wynnum West.

The relocation to Iona was done in stages with the entries to the building removed and loaded onto one trailer followed by the roof being lifted off the main building and craned onto a second truck.

The Wynnum Baptist church being loaded onto a truck

The church on the move to Iona College

The century old building on the way to its new home

Out of the kitchen

Jirsch Sutherland has hired veteran accountant and former Japanese chef Hanzel Hizola to expand the insolvency firm’s Queensland operations as well as spearhead the opening of a Gold Coast office. Hizola previously held roles with the Australian Taxation Office, PKF, PwC, Rodgers Reidy and, most recently, Worrells, where he was a senior manager.

“Like many of my peers, I fell into insolvency,” says Hizola. “I was working for the ATO at the time and was offered a position with an insolvency firm.”

Queensland is a the perfect location for the experienced beancounter who describes himself as an ‘outdoorsy person’ and who likes nothing more than taking his four-wheel drive to the country’s best beaches and camp under the stars.

He’s also an avid spearfisherman, having travelled throughout Asia and the Pacific in the search of the perfect catch. “Prior to becoming an accountant, I was a chef specialising in Japanese cuisine, so my catches these days typically turn up in a delectable plate of sashimi,” he says. “My days as a chef also mean I understand the challenges of the restaurant sector well, so can certainly provide informed guidance for any clients in this industry.”

Hanzel Hizola joining leading insolvnecy firn

Japan’s new man

Tokyo has a new man in Brisbane with the appointment of Gomakubo Junji as consul general for Japan for the city. Gomakubo will arrive this month to commence his term after having previously served in a number of African countries together with various posts in France. He replaces Ono Masuo who left to take up a posting as consul-General in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Queensland Japan Chamber of Commerce and Industry president Chris Whitecross says the QJCCI looks forward to continuing its close working relationship with the consulate in Brisbane.