So, as the sun sets midweek, I head to Metro Lanes, one of the few businesses in Sky World that remains open. At the designated time I\u2019m greeted by Samuel Kang, a young digital marketer who tells me he\u2019s in charge of Sky World\u2019s Facebook ads. He reveals it was him who organised that day\u2019s interview.<\/p>\n
Kang introduces me to Leiataua. Her Linkedin profile tells me she is enjoying her first job, pulling double duty as the HR and property manager for JNJ Management, Kwak\u2019s company that owns and operates Sky World. On this, Leiataua corrects me: she began as the company\u2019s receptionist and was recently promoted to her current role.<\/p>\n
Then Leiataua breaks the bad news: \u201cJames actually has \u2026 an external meeting out of the building.\u201d Kwak can\u2019t make it. She and Kang will have to do, then.<\/p>\n
Since opening in 1999, Sky World has gone by many monikers. Some may remember it as the Force Entertainment Centre, or SkyCity Metro, or the Metro Centre, or just \u201cthe iMax building\u201d, in reference to the Event cinema complex upstairs. Inspiration for its futuristic and dystopian design came from Blade Runner<\/a>, the building\u2019s original architect Ashley Allen has said.<\/p>\n In 2026, Sky World is officially changing its name. That\u2019s the first thing that pops out of the 32-page makeover document Leiataua hands to me, which renames Sky World to \u201cOnQ\u201d (it\u2019s pronounced, \u201cOn Q\u201d, a reference to the building\u2019s Queen Street location). \u201cChange is coming,\u201d promises the new plan. \u201cExpect it all.\u201d<\/p>\n Those plans do not disappoint. Mock-ups show light, airy spaces, all new glass frontages, bustling eateries, comfy couches, indoor plants and marbled stairs. It also shows people doing something rare: enjoying Sky World again. In the renders, kids are smiling and adults are happy \u2013 a call back to the kind of experience it used to deliver, where busy food vendors mixed with retail chains and one-off experiences.<\/p>\n The problem, however, is that these \u201cnew\u201d plans are just like the old plans. I first reported on them <\/a>in 2022, when the OnQ name change was announced and renders showed giant digital screens smothering Sky World \u2013 from a giant movie screen hovering over Aotea Square, to a cylindrical screen wrapping around the old Starbucks tower, to a vertical screen installed at the back.\u00a0<\/p>\n More than three years later, Leiataua and Kang presented these plans to me as new. The email pitched a \u201cconcrete update \u2026 a strong follow-up on how the site is evolving\u201d. But little appears to have happened since 2022 \u2013 none of the signage has changed, those interior spaces remained closed off and dimly lit. Even Google Maps still calls it Sky World Indoor Entertainment, not \u201cOnQ\u201d.<\/p>\n So these are still just plans, of which there have been many over the years. By my count, OnQ is the fourth Sky World rejuvenation project I\u2019ve seen in the past six years, and this is its second run. Some might recall images of an ambitious floating bar<\/a> hovering in the foyer, or an outdoor elevator capable of taking 50 people at a time to a rooftop music venue, where a giant cigar-shaped structure<\/a> would be installed.<\/p>\n Leiataua keeps saying this time is different. Stage one of OnQ is under way, with an in-house caf\u00e9 recently re-opening and a mini-putt golf course installed downstairs. Resource consent for the screen over Aotea Square is in motion, she says. Plus, construction work is booked to begin later this month on a 33-stall market on the ground floor where the old food court used to reside.<\/p>\nThe Queen Street entrance render from the new (2022) development plan<\/p>\n
An impressive render that may or may not become reality<\/p>\n