{"id":277416,"date":"2026-02-10T20:02:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-10T20:02:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/277416\/"},"modified":"2026-02-10T20:02:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-10T20:02:08","slug":"aucklands-international-convention-centre-finally-opens","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/277416\/","title":{"rendered":"Auckland’s international convention centre finally opens"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Opening<\/p>\n

\nPrime Minister Christopher Luxon and Tourism Minister Louse Upston open the New Zealand International Convention Centre, Auckland,
\nPhoto: RNZ \/ Paris Ibell\n<\/p>\n

The New Zealand International Convention Centre opened its doors for the first time.<\/p>\n

It’s been almost 13 years since the government announced the deal for SkyCity to build the Centre<\/a> in Auckland in exchange for an extension of its gambling licence and permission for an additional 230 slot machines.<\/p>\n

Construction has been mired in delays, partly caused by the 2019 roof fire that took more than 10 days to extinguish.<\/p>\n

The finished building<\/a> can fit more than 4000 people, and has been projected to contribute about $90 million a year over the next three years.<\/p>\n

At the opening, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon told reporters it was an exciting day, and the convention centre showed the government is building a “world class New Zealand”.<\/p>\n

He said the centre was likely to bring in more than the forecast $90m.<\/p>\n

\"Opening<\/p>\n

\n

Photo: RNZ \/ Paris Ibell\n<\/p>\n

Convention centre general manager Prue Daly said they were booked for than 120 events this year and further bookings extended through the years ahead.<\/p>\n

Daly said sustainability would be embedded into the operations of the new centre.<\/p>\n

The massive 2019 blaze<\/a>, which broke out on the centre’s roof, was later found to be accidental.<\/p>\n

A report from FENZ said it happened when the top layers of a waterproof membrane were being laid on the roof.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Tourism Minister Louse Upston open the New Zealand International Convention Centre, Auckland, Photo:…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":277417,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[48,47,111,43,139,69,49,46,44,45],"class_list":{"0":"post-277416","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-zealand","8":"tag-audio","9":"tag-current-affairs","10":"tag-new-zealand","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-newzealand","13":"tag-nz","14":"tag-podcasts","15":"tag-public-radio","16":"tag-radio-new-zealand","17":"tag-rnz"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/277416","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=277416"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/277416\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/277417"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=277416"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=277416"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=277416"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}