{"id":116619,"date":"2025-11-04T01:44:14","date_gmt":"2025-11-04T01:44:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/116619\/"},"modified":"2025-11-04T01:44:14","modified_gmt":"2025-11-04T01:44:14","slug":"fletcher-building-hands-over-keys-to-auckland-convention-centre-just-over-10-years-after-signing-up-to-build-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/116619\/","title":{"rendered":"Fletcher Building hands over keys to Auckland convention centre – just over 10 years after signing up to build it"},"content":{"rendered":"

So, there it is, over six-and-a-half years later than planned, and at around double early cost estimates, the $750 million New Zealand International Convention Centre (NZICC) in Auckland is good to go.<\/p>\n

Fletcher Building [FBU<\/a>] officially handed it over<\/a> to the operators SkyCity Entertainment [SKC<\/a>] on Tuesday and SkyCity says it will now start operational testing and commissioning<\/a> ahead of the official opening in February 2026.<\/p>\n

Fletcher Building’s current CEO Andrew Reding – who is the third Fletcher CEO to be involved with the NZICC – says the handover [just over 10 years after the company signed up for the project<\/a>] represents “the culmination of an extraordinary journey in which we have overcome unprecedented challenges, from the aftermath of the fire to complex remediation works that tested every part of the project. It stands as a testament to the determination, skill and professionalism of everyone involved.”<\/p>\n

Originally championed by then Prime Minister John Key as far back as 2011<\/a>, and with early thoughts that it could be open by 2017<\/a>, the “38-month build”<\/a>, 32,500 sq m\u00a0centre, was already delayed when in October 2019 it was extensively damaged by fire. It has since had to be largely rebuilt.<\/p>\n

Earlier this year, SkyCity commenced legal action<\/a> against Fletcher Building, though legal experts think the claim has little chance of success.<\/p>\n

SkyCity Chief Executive Officer, Jason Walbridge, said the handover was “a major milestone for SkyCity, and we\u2019re delighted to finally have the keys”.<\/p>\n

SkyCity says the NZICC will be the largest and most versatile conference, exhibition, and entertainment venue in New Zealand, with capacity for up to 4,000 attendees. The NZICC theatre will be the largest seated theatre in the country, seating 2,850 people, while the hall will be able to host 3,300 people for a banquet.<\/p>\n

To date, 100 events have been confirmed for 2026, including two of Australasia\u2019s largest association conferences \u2013 The Australian and New Zealand College of Anaesthetists (ANZCA) and the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Ophthalmologists (RANZCO).<\/p>\n

According to its website<\/a>, the NZICC is expected to attract approximately 33,000 international delegates annually, contributing around $90 million in new economic spend each year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"So, there it is, over six-and-a-half years later than planned, and at around double early cost estimates, the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":116620,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-116619","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116619","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=116619"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116619\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/116620"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=116619"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=116619"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=116619"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}