SkyCity casino’s 30th birthday: Fletcher Construction built it in only two years

The then-Prime Minister Jim Bolger and then-Governor General Dame Catherine Tizard officiated in front of the packed black tie gala opening, where guests were given chips to take a flutter.

Tizard and Bolger were photographed beaming above a blue roulette table, Tizard holding a fistful of red and white dice.

“Awesome!” said Bolger of the astonishing pace on one of the largest commercial projects in this country.

It took what appears now a seemingly impossible short time of just two years to build the main SkyCity property.

When asked how long it took, SkyCity executives guessed four to five years and were amazed at that short build time.

Tizard, who chaired the casino’s charitable trust, joked to guests on the night: “I didn’t bring any money”.

She wore emerald green and a colourful necklace. Bolger wore a National-coloured bow tie.

Monday next week is the casino’s 30th birthday.

At the opening, Paul Collins, chief executive of SkyCity’s 80% owner Brierley Investment, described the investment as a gamble which he initially doubted.

Brierley chose the United States-based Harrah’s as its partner for the casino.

Harrah’s had a 20% stake when the casino opened.

Picking the Americans followed Brierley’s worldwide review of big casino operators and managers.

“It is hard to believe this massive development is open when just two years ago, there was a car park on the site,” Collins said.

All this took place at a black-tie event inside New Zealand’s first casino on the evening of February 2, 1996, when Bolger said the building would boost the national economy, particularly tourism and employment.

Dave Dobbyn sang his iconic Slice of Heaven.

Māori Queen Dame Te Atairangikaahu, Hollywood-based actor Russell Crowe and fellow actor Kevin Sorbo from the TV series Hercules were among guests.

“A haka and pōwhiri echoed throughout the casino’s atrium as the guests, who flashed their finest, sipped champagne before sweeping up the escalators to the dark, cavernous interior of the Eden Park-sized gaming room,” the Herald reported from the night.

Three Herald journalists covered it: Joanne Birks, Leanne Moore and James Gardiner.

It’s only due to a visit to the Herald’s valuable, substantial clippings newspaper archive at Ellerslie that this can be remembered and retold three decades later.

Files show Fletcher Construction only started building the casino in February 1994, when the Herald reported the site had been a car park.

That is in contrast to the 11 years the same company took to build the $1b NZ International Convention Centre for SkyCity, hit by Covid and the October 2019 fire.

SkyCity is now suing Fletcher for $330m for taking so long but Fletcher said it would strongly defend itself.

On February 28, 1994, Fletcher Construction began digging a six-storey deep hole across the entire site.

By October 1995, the structure had been closed in allowing internal fitout and services work to begin.

On January 21, 1996, Fletcher Construction was presented with its practical completion certificate from the building owners and architects.

Next month, the long-awaited international convention centre at SkyCity will be officially opened.

Already it has staged Prime Minister Christopher Luxon’s election pitch event and Six60 will play the first live gig there next month.

In 1996 then-SkyCity chief executive Evan Davies thanked Warren Hollings and his team at Fletcher Construction for their casino planning work before building started.

“The nine months that Warren Hollings and his team at Fletcher put into the detailed planning and methodologies for the job were absolutely crucial in winning the licence in the first place,” said Davies, now heading the Dunedin hospital development.

Mark Binns, then managing director of Fletcher Construction, said the project had been “thrilling as a construction feat but it is also very pleasing to know the role the company played, both in the winning of the casino premises’ licence and by delivering certainty to the client”.

It was only later that the SkyTower was finished.

That structure’s 25th birthday was marked by a Herald feature in 2022.

It wasn’t just the casino that rose.

The development also included the 323-room SkyCity Hotel, public areas, bars, 700-seat theatre and restaurants.

On Monday, the SkyTower will mark the birthday and 42 staff, there from day one, will also be celebrated.

Anne Gibson has been the Herald‘s property editor for 25 years, written books and covered property extensively here and overseas.