It\u2019s been at least four million years since then. The convention centre has endured one of the longest, most cursed construction periods in New Zealand\u2019s history. It was years behind schedule<\/a> even before workers accidentally lit some cardboard on fire<\/a> and burned down a good chunk of the structure in 2019. The convention centre\u2019s operator, SkyCity, sued Fletcher Construction for $330m over that incident, which probably made the last few months of working together to repair the building slightly awkward. But at last they\u2019re almost done. The Hobson St building\u2019s opening is booked for February 11<\/a>. Was the gargantuan effort to build it worthwhile?<\/p>\n If you ask Prue Daly, the answer is 1,000,000% holy cow absolutely golly gosh yes. The convention centre\u2019s general manager is almost giddily excited about the place she\u2019s charged with running for the foreseeable future. Daly describes herself as a \u201cconvention centre nerd\u201d. It\u2019s a believable claim. She guides The Spinoff around the new building with the enthusiasm of a Lord of the Rings fan who\u2019s just been named mayor of Hobbiton by Sir Peter Jackson himself.<\/p>\n First stop, the atrium, where workers are still using a green cherry picker to install something near the entrance. These mini-construction sites are dotted throughout the building, as Fletchers carries out some unspecified \u201cfinishing touches\u201d. \u201cI don\u2019t know what they\u2019re doing,\u201d says Daly cheerfully as we survey the crew of workers. Up a few levels, the task is more obvious. Window washers rappel down the building as Daly talks about the centre\u2019s food menu.\u00a0<\/p>\n Besides the last-minute flurry of activity, everything looks pretty much done. The building\u2019s entranceway is laid out with blue and black marble tiles. A 17-metre-tall Shane Cotton (Ng\u0101puhi, Ng\u0101ti Rangi, Ng\u0101ti Hine, Te Uri Taniwha) mosaic runs from the first floor to its fifth, while kaiwhakairo Lyonel Grant\u2019s (Ng\u0101ti Pikiao, Te Arawa) equally huge Pou Wairua stands nearby. The art makes what could have been a sterile corporate space feel a little more like home. \u201cI tend to travel around convention centers all around the world, and a lot of the time you can step into them and you don\u2019t know where you are,\u201d says Daly. \u201cHere they\u2019ll feel like they\u2019ve been in New Zealand when they leave and that\u2019s really important for international guests in particular.\u201d<\/p>\n Escalators criss-cross the building, linking to a multitude of unusually shaped levels. The layout brings to mind Auckland\u2019s original landmark meeting place, the technofuturistic Queen St complex SkyWorld<\/a>, only with an estimated 40 to 80% less derangement infused into its design.\u00a0<\/p>\n But the convention centre isn\u2019t here to reanimate a rotting architectural icon<\/a>. It\u2019s here to provide a bunch of incredibly large spaces for businesspeople to talk about stuff. On that front, it seems to excel. Just off the atrium sits the intimidatingly massive Ariki Hall. \u201cWhen it\u2019s all opened up, it\u2019s the size of a rugby field,\u201d Daly says. But most of the time it won\u2019t be Eden Park. Its walls are adjustable, allowing it to be configured for multiple conventions at once. Daly and her team have taken 120 bookings so far, including a big one: the International Coral Reef Symposium<\/a> in July.<\/p>\n Five floors up, past dozens of work spaces and meeting rooms, sits the centre\u2019s entertainment hub, Te Paepae theatre. The 2850-seat venue has a retractable wall down its middle, allowing it to be turned into two rooms capable of holding simultaneous shows. Christopher Luxon has already held his State of the Nation speech here. Six60 are booked to play its first concert in February<\/a>.<\/p>\n Daly talks with some glee about the bells and whistles that go into these spaces. It\u2019s hard to blame her. She\u2019s been on the convention centre team since 2016 and it\u2019s been a hard road to get here. But while the imminent opening is a milestone for her team, she\u2019s adamant it\u2019s better news for the city. \u201cHonestly, I think Auckland is excited,\u201d she says. \u201cThere\u2019s real optimism that things are starting to shift. We\u2019re not going to change the city by ourselves obviously, but we\u2019re one of the reasons why people should be excited. Major events are good for the economy.\u201d<\/p>\n They\u2019re also good for SkyCity. The gambling giant\u2019s Auckland license got extended to 2048 as part of the government deal for constructing the centre, and it\u2019ll have an expanded arsenal of pokies and gaming tables to offer the corporate workers flying in to talk shop on Hobson St.\u00a0<\/p>\n When the government struck that deal, Labour\u2019s Chris Hipkins accused it of trading \u201coff the misery of people who suffer from problem gambling\u201d. Problem Gambling Foundation chief executive Graeme Ramsey said you create 0.8 problem gamblers for every pokie machine you add to a city. Prime minister John Key responded that he was more focused on the $90m annual boost to Auckland\u2019s economy.<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n Now that economic shot in the arm is set to arrive in full and Daly\u2019s right, it\u2019s coming with Auckland primed for a change in fortunes. The City Rail Link is set to open in the second half of this year, bringing an influx of foot traffic. The St James Theatre is being rebuilt. The Aotea Centretheatre precinct is getting an upgrade and the area around Britomart is already humming<\/a>.<\/p>\n After a fire, legal action and endless delays, SkyCity\u2019s new convention centre will slot right into the middle of that revival. The building\u2019s architecture is nice but, by some miracle, the company\u2019s timing looks like it might be even nicer. As the saying goes, the house always wins.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After a controversial government deal, a huge fire, legal action and a construction process that can only be…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":256857,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[51,138,148114,111,139,69,148115,135,8529,2935,148116],"class_list":["post-256856","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-auckland","tag-business","tag-john-key","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-nz-international-convention-centre","tag-politics","tag-skycity","tag-society","tag-steven-joyce"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/256856","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=256856"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/256856\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/256857"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=256856"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=256856"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=256856"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}The NZ International Convention Centre on Hobson St. (Photo: NZICC)<\/p>\n
The finishing touches going on. (Photos: Hayden Donnell)<\/p>\n
Pou Wairua. (Photo: NZICC)<\/p>\n
SkyWorld reborn. (Images: NZICC)<\/p>\n
Ariki Hall. (Photo: Hayden Donnell)<\/p>\n
Prue Daly in Te Paepae theatre. (Photo: Hayden Donnell)<\/p>\n