Auckland’s NZICC wins national tourism and leisure property award

The New Zealand International Convention Centre has been named winner of the Holmes Tourism and Leisure Property Award at this evening’s Property Council New Zealand Rider Levett Bucknall Property Industry Awards.

Announced from inside the NZICC itself, the award recognises one of the most significant tourism and event infrastructure projects delivered in New Zealand this century.

Located at 101 Hobson Street in central Auckland, the NZICC is owned and developed by SkyCity Entertainment Group, constructed by Fletcher Construction Company, with architecture by Warren and Mahoney, Moller Architects and Woods Bagot.

Spanning a vast 88,000sqm in the city centre, the vertically integrated development delivers 32,500sqm of flexible event space, including 8,100sqm of divisible exhibition halls and New Zealand’s largest 2,850-seat theatre.

The scale and flexibility of the venue allows New Zealand to host major conferences, exhibitions, cultural events and large-format gatherings that were previously difficult to accommodate onshore. Conceived as a catalyst for prosperity, it is designed to grow high-value business events and energise Auckland’s visitor economy.

Property Council New Zealand Chief Executive Leonie Freeman says the NZICC represents a major step-change for New Zealand’s tourism and business events capability.

“NZICC gives New Zealand a level of event infrastructure it has not had before,” says Freeman.

“It gives Auckland the ability to compete for larger, higher-value business events and gives New Zealand a venue capable of bringing international delegates, ideas, industries and cultural moments together under one roof.”

Freeman says the project’s significance extends well beyond the building itself.

“Tourism and leisure property has a direct relationship with economic confidence. When a venue of this scale is working well, the benefits flow year-round into hotels, hospitality, retail, transport and the wider visitor economy. It creates demand across the city and stands as a bold symbol of ambition and long-term growth.”

Chief Judge Andy Evans says the judges were impressed by the NZICC’s scale, flexibility and national significance.

“The NZICC has been a long time coming, and the result is a venue with genuine national importance,” says Evans.

“It has the flexibility to support multiple events at once, the scale to attract international congresses and exhibitions, and the quality of experience needed to represent New Zealand on a global stage.”

The venue has also been designed to carry a strong sense of place. Upper levels provide views across Auckland, while the building’s design and public-facing spaces create what judges described as a memorable “New Zealand Inc” experience for visitors.

Evans says the project’s delivery also speaks to the resilience required to bring complex, city-shaping infrastructure to life.

“Major projects of this kind are rarely simple. The NZICC has come through extraordinary complexity, including the 2019 fire, to deliver a facility that will support Auckland and New Zealand for decades. That persistence is part of the project’s story.”

As one of the first major industry events to take place in the new venue, this year’s Property Industry Awards attracted the largest-ever audience with 1,590 guests in attendance and offered a fitting showcase for the sector: celebrating the country’s leading built environment projects while gathering inside one of New Zealand’s newest landmark developments.

Freeman says that context gave the evening particular significance.

“There is something very fitting about the property sector coming together here,” she says.

“The NZICC is exactly the kind of project these Awards exist to recognise: ambitious, complex, commercially important and capable of changing how people experience a city.

The wider project team included Beca as structural, service and mechanical engineer and project manager, Mott MacDonald as building enclosure engineer, Rider Levett Bucknall as quantity surveyor, NDY as fire engineer and Marshall Day Acoustics as acoustic engineer.

Now in its 36th year, the Property Council New Zealand Rider Levett Bucknall Property Industry Awards celebrate excellence in design, innovation and investment across the built environment.

ENDS

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