Horizon Hotel done, NZ International Convention Centre to be finished by year-end

SkyCity's new Horizon Hotel, now due to open on August 1, 2024. Photo / Jason Oxenham

SkyCity Entertainment and Fletcher Building have announced the “practical completion” of the long-awaited Horizon Hotel, now due to open on August 1.

But Fletcher’s announcement was couched in less celebratory language, citing the much larger and more difficult NZ International Convention Centre, taking longer to complete and involving insurance after the October 2019 fire.

Fletcher cited insurance claims and risks but also said the NZICC would be finished by the end of this year.

“The Hobson Street hotel portion of the project has now achieved practical completion and has been handed over to the client, SkyCity. The company has also settled its remaining contract works insurance claims with the NZICC project insurers and SkyCity,” Fletcher said today.

The contract works insurance settlement proceeds were materially in line with those assumed in the company’s provision taken in February, and so de-risks that aspect of the project, the company said.

“The company continues to target completion of NZICC by the end of calendar 2024 ... However, risks will remain until the project is completed as described in the company’s HY24 financial statements,” Fletcher said.

“These include risks on time and cost to complete the construction works and commission the building, and the potential for disputes and wash-up claims against the company.”

The hotel on Hobson St beside the NZICC was meant to open in March and was then delayed till May but now is due to open in August.

SkyCity said Horizon is a 303-room five-star hotel connected to the NZICC and the SkyCity Auckland precinct.

The new joins the Grand by SkyCity and SkyCity Hotel, to bring the total hotel rooms in the SkyCity Auckland precinct to nearly 1000, that company said today in a market update.

If the NZICC is finished by this year’s end as Fletcher said today, it will have been a nine-year project.

The Herald reported in 2015 how Nigel Morrison, ex-SkyCity chief executive, announced Fletcher Construction would be the main contractor after the company agreed the terms of a binding $477 million contract to build the NZICC.

Fletcher is trading on the NZX around $2.83, down 48 per cent annually. SkyCity is trading around $1.46, down 36 per cent annually.

Fletcher’s share price has fallen so much lately that Sam Stubbs of KiwiSaver provider Simplicity has called that a “woeful underperformance” costing millions of investors, including KiwiSaver members, hundreds of millions of dollars.

Anne Gibson has been the Herald’s property editor for 24 years, written books and covered property extensively here and overseas.