By the Numbers: Inside SkyCity’s soon-to-open International Convention Centre
Sunday, 17 November 2024
BY THE NUMBERS: SkyCity’s International Convention Centre is due to open next year, but shareholders at the company’s tense AGM late last month got a video tour to help offset their misery at the company’s share price woes.
Worth nearly $2.90 just 24 months ago, the company’s share price is languishing around $1.40 after failing to adhere to anti-money laundering and responsible gambling laws, posting a $143 million loss in the 2024 financial year, and suspending dividends to shareholders.
But, the casino operator hopes to turn the page on its troubles in its current financial year, and the opening of its Horizon by SkyCity hotel in August, and the huge convention centre next year, promise new revenue.
The scale of the convention centre is like nothing New Zealand has had before, though it’s got nothing on the giants of world convention centres like the the Hanover Messe and the National Exhibition and Convention Centre in Shanghai with covered exhibition space of around 400,000sqm.
6700sqm
The main floor of the SkyCity International Convention Centre is large at 6700sqm.
“Think of the Boat Show but on steroids!” SkyCity’s chief operating officer Callum Mallett told shareholders at the AGM.
That single huge exhibition hall could be split up using moveable walls, but it’s larger than the other large exhibition halls around the country.
Wellington boasts the 1280sq exhibition hall at the Tākina Wellington Convention and Exhibition Centre.
Hamilton’s Mystery Creek conference hall is 2052sqm in size.
Christchurch’s Te Pae convention centre can combine its exhibition halls 1, 2, 3 and 4 into a 2845sqm space.
Auckland’s ASB Showground’s pavilions 3 and 4 combine to make a 5544sqm space.
But all five of those huge spaces added together could fit into just one of the 13 giant 30,000sqm exhibition halls at the National Exhibition and Convention Centre in Shanghai with plenty of space to spare.
3200 diners
New Zealand has had a few banquets in its time.
Back in 1844, Waikato rangatira held a huge hākari in Remuera, Auckland, attended by an estimated 4000 Māori and Pākeha.
Just last year, over 3800 attended the Barfoot & Thompson centenary dinner at the Ellerslie Convention Centre.
Mallett told shareholders the SkyCity centre would be able to cater to 3200 seated guests.
“This allows us to cater for groups as small as a boardroom of 20 all the way to - in a New Zealand first - a 3200-person seated dinner,” he said.
11 tonnes
Setting up an exhibition at scale sometimes involves bringing in large items on trucks.
To cater to this the convention centre has truck lifts able to carry 11 tonnes of weight, but trucks will also be able to drive straight in through opening glass panels from Hobson Street.
3000
“At full capacity, the theatre can accommodate just under three thousand people auditorium style,” Mallet told shareholders.
But it could be divided in to two separate 1200 theatres that could run side by side, without one disturbing the other, he said.
It has motorised retractable seating, and by removing the lower level seats, and activating the first tier retractable seating, the space could be converted into to a flat floor area to accommodate a dinner for 1100 people.
2013
This is the year the controversial plan for the International Convention Centre was created in a deal with the National Government.
It was controversial because the deal saw SkyCity’s Auckland casino licence, due for renewal in 2021, extended to 2048, amending it to cover all of SkyCity’s properties in Federal Street.
It also allowed the casino to have an additional 230 pokie machines, and 40 extra gaming tables.
Anti-gambling charities and Green Party MPs were furious.
$402 million
The initial cost estimate for the convention centre was to be $402m.
History shows that was an extremely optimistic forecast.
In 2015, Fletcher Building won the tender, and was to build the centre for $477m.
By 2018, it was clear Fletcher Building could not build the convention centre for that price. It was one of 16 troubled construction projects on the NZX company’s books that was the start of a multi-year crisis at the company that continues to this day.
By February 2018, Fletcher Building was forecasting a $410m loss from the project, indicating SkyCity shareholders have enjoyed a massive transfer of value from Fletchers.
2019
On October 22, 2019, a fire broke out on the nearly completed convention centre.
Like everything about the convention centre, the blaze was enormous.
Smoke pouring from the blaze shrouded the city centre. Two dozen fire engines raced to fight the flames. More than 100 firefighters took part in the operation to douse the flames.
And Fletcher Building faced yet more costs.
$255 million
In 2023 Fletcher Building announced a 46% fall in its annual profit caused by extra costs related to the troubled international convention centre in Auckland.
Net profit fell to $235min the year to June 30, from $432m the previous year.
The result included $301m of one-time costs, largely due to $255m in provisions for the convention centre and related Hobson St hotel project.