SkyCity has revealed plans to build a new hotel and pedestrian laneway of bars, restaurants and boutique shopping to extend the SkyCity precinct in Auckland’s CBD.

Warren and Mahoney and Moller Architects will work together to design the 5 star, 300-bed hotel and pedestrian laneway to link Hobson St to Nelson St as part of the New Zealand International Convention Centre complex. 

The new hotel will complement other hotels being built in downtown Auckland, SkyCity chief executive Nigel Morrison says.

“Taken together, these developments are a major vote of confidence in Auckland’s future as a vibrant, evolving city of international standing,” Morrison says.

The hotel will be linked by an air bridge to the rest of SkyCity and adjacent to the hotel will be a pedestrian laneway with restuarants, bars and boutique shops.

Principal and executive director of Warren and Mahoney, John Coop, says the project is “a landmark opportunity to create a truly international modern hotel within the central city”.

 “In Auckland, most of our current four and five star hotels are from a previous era; they are constructed of very solid brick masonry or concrete, and while they may have been successfully upgraded, still reflect the past. With a completely new build hotel, we have an opportunity to use modern technologies and contemporary design and planning methods in the room and fixture design. In a beautifully integrated project, we will create lightness in the way the space feels and capitalise on beautiful views towards the harbour and urban landscape.”