Exciting developments are happening at Sky World in 2026, says management. Only problem is they’ve been saying that since 2022.
“I’m the replacement,” says Lydia Leiataua. She gestures at the empty chair where Sky World’s owner James Kwak is supposed to be sitting. Three teens sip sodas and argue about their tenpin bowling scores behind her. Leiataua stares out across Aotea Square and sighs. This wasn’t the plan. “It was supposed to be him and not me.”
The email was tantalising, the promise intoxicating. Would The Spinoff enjoy an exclusive Sky World tour and no-holds-barred interview with Kwak about the latest rejuvenation plans for his once-legendary, now-struggling entertainment complex? “Happy to share details, timelines and arrange interviews,” the note said. “I am CC’ing in … James.”
I instantly replied. “Yes please.” For six years, I have been trying to talk to Kwak about Sky World, the labyrinthine central city hub he purchased for $37 million in 2011. He remains an elusive figure, granting one brief interview to Newshub in 2017. So reluctant to talk is Kwak he once fled an RNZ reporter while claiming to be someone else.
So, as the sun sets midweek, I head to Metro Lanes, one of the few businesses in Sky World that remains open. At the designated time I’m greeted by Samuel Kang, a young digital marketer who tells me he’s in charge of Sky World’s Facebook ads. He reveals it was him who organised that day’s interview.
Kang introduces me to Leiataua. Her Linkedin profile tells me she is enjoying her first job, pulling double duty as the HR and property manager for JNJ Management, Kwak’s company that owns and operates Sky World. On this, Leiataua corrects me: she began as the company’s receptionist and was recently promoted to her current role.
Then Leiataua breaks the bad news: “James actually has … an external meeting out of the building.” Kwak can’t make it. She and Kang will have to do, then.
Since opening in 1999, Sky World has gone by many monikers. Some may remember it as the Force Entertainment Centre, or SkyCity Metro, or the Metro Centre, or just “the iMax building”, in reference to the Event cinema complex upstairs. Inspiration for its futuristic and dystopian design came from Blade Runner, the building’s original architect Ashley Allen has said.
In 2026, Sky World is officially changing its name. That’s the first thing that pops out of the 32-page makeover document Leiataua hands to me, which renames Sky World to “OnQ” (it’s pronounced, “On Q”, a reference to the building’s Queen Street location). “Change is coming,” promises the new plan. “Expect it all.”
Those plans do not disappoint. Mock-ups show light, airy spaces, all new glass frontages, bustling eateries, comfy couches, indoor plants and marbled stairs. It also shows people doing something rare: enjoying Sky World again. In the renders, kids are smiling and adults are happy – a call back to the kind of experience it used to deliver, where busy food vendors mixed with retail chains and one-off experiences.
The problem, however, is that these “new” plans are just like the old plans. I first reported on them in 2022, when the OnQ name change was announced and renders showed giant digital screens smothering Sky World – from a giant movie screen hovering over Aotea Square, to a cylindrical screen wrapping around the old Starbucks tower, to a vertical screen installed at the back.
More than three years later, Leiataua and Kang presented these plans to me as new. The email pitched a “concrete update … a strong follow-up on how the site is evolving”. But little appears to have happened since 2022 – none of the signage has changed, those interior spaces remained closed off and dimly lit. Even Google Maps still calls it Sky World Indoor Entertainment, not “OnQ”.
So these are still just plans, of which there have been many over the years. By my count, OnQ is the fourth Sky World rejuvenation project I’ve seen in the past six years, and this is its second run. Some might recall images of an ambitious floating bar hovering in the foyer, or an outdoor elevator capable of taking 50 people at a time to a rooftop music venue, where a giant cigar-shaped structure would be installed.
Leiataua keeps saying this time is different. Stage one of OnQ is under way, with an in-house café recently re-opening and a mini-putt golf course installed downstairs. Resource consent for the screen over Aotea Square is in motion, she says. Plus, construction work is booked to begin later this month on a 33-stall market on the ground floor where the old food court used to reside.
The timing is important. Across the road, renovations are also under way at the St James theatre with a new basement venue, due to open in 2028. The Civic, Aotea Centre and Auckland Town Hall are all a stone’s throw from Sky World. The City Rail Link’s Te Waihorotiu Station is projected to open this year, and Leiataua says that means an extra 54,000 people entering the area at peak times.
This may explain Sky World’s sudden eagerness to open its doors, to progress these changes – and to finally talk to a journalist. It needs tenants, fast. The new market has room for 33 businesses; an entire floor dedicated to six large restaurants remains almost entirely deserted except for a fried chicken joint. They’re getting inquiries, Leiataua says, including an Indian restaurant that may move into the space where Borders and Carl’s Jr used to be.
So what’s the budget? When are the deadlines? What is OnQ’s timeline? As I ask Leiataua these questions, Kang says, “I want to know this as well.” She shakes her head, remaining cagey on specifics. But she does say this: “December’s going to be a really exciting time. A lot of people will come to Auckland from overseas for Christmas. We want everything to be … flowing.”
“Putting plasters on something is just prolonging the agony.” That’s Ashley Allen’s view on the developments. I’d emailed him the On Q makeover document to get his opinion. Allen’s response is scathing. “It’s really sad. It’s so underwhelming. It’s not what’s going to fix the problem,” he tells me. “I don’t think [James] is going to do it anyway.”
Allen has been a vocal critic of what’s happened to his beloved Sky World. He believes restoring it to its former glory – a one-stop entertainment destination in the middle of Queen Street – is the only option. “This is where the entertainment hub of Auckland has to be,” he says. “You don’t want to dilute it by doing something half-hearted. It needs to be done in a strong, gutsy way.”
The screens, Allen agrees, are a step in the right direction. But he wants to see the entire complex overhauled and renovated with a singular vision. That, he believes, is the only way to secure Sky World’s future. “You have to blitz everyone out of the market. If you don’t, someone might do it better … and suddenly this building becomes a has-been.”
Others with ties to Sky World are also sceptical. Brad Jacobs, the director and property manager for The Coffee Club, pulled his franchise out of the building in 2020, alleging Kwak put tenants’ rent up during Covid lockdowns then chased them for penalty interest and legal costs. “It was a very tough position he took on everyone,” he told Metro magazine in 2021.(Kwak didn’t respond to a request for comment on Jacobs’ claims.)
When reached by The Spinoff, Jacobs says he’s been contacted very recently about bringing The Coffee Club back to OnQ. “We will look at it,” he says, “but given our previous experience there, with some hesitation of course.”
Visit Sky World now and it’s in the same rundown, semi-abandoned state it’s been in for years. Metro Lanes, the GameOn Arcade, the Odyssey Maze experience and Event Cinemas are open. But windows are broken, doors chained up, and the old Starbucks is covered in faded “coming soon” posters that have failed to deliver on that promise for years. The entrance still smells faintly of urine.
But take a step inside and there’s a visible green shoot. It’s a sign of life, the first since I started covering the building’s slow, sad demise in 2020. Bake My Day, the in-house café on the ground floor that closed during Covid lockdowns and became a frozen-in-time curio for visitors, has turned the lights back on.
It’s only been open for a week, and on the day I visited I was the only customer at lunch time – a long way from when that level was a bustling, popular food court. But an almond croissant, imported frozen from France, was delicious, and an oat flat white was very good. If nothing else happens at Sky World – sorry, OnQ – at least you can get a snack inside the building now.
