City inviting public to meeting on plan for Blaisdell Center

A conceptual plan for an upgraded Blaisdell Center complex calls for extending Victoria Street down to Kapiolani Boulevard, building a new exhibition hall, renovating both the arena and the concert hall, and creating more parking and green space.

The “preliminary concepts” for the upcoming Blaisdell Center Master Plan will be shared at a public workshop at 6 p.m. Thursday at the Blaisdell Center Hawai‘i Suites. The city’s Department of Enterprise Services will give a summary of the Blaisdell Center Feasibility Study and Conceptual Land Use Plan, as well as preliminary designs for the revamped 22.4-acre complex.

City officials have roughly calculated the total cost as between $300 million and $400 million. Neither a timeline nor source of funding has been set.

This would be the first major overhaul of the city facility, which opened in 1964.

The most dramatic proposal calls for extending Victoria Street, which currently leads into the mauka entrance of the Blaisdell parking lot, beyond South King Street and down to Kapiolani Boulevard. To do that, the city would need to knock down the existing Blaisdell parking structure.

But the plan also calls for two new parking structures that would have 2,000 stalls, a third more than the current 1,500 stalls. One would provide direct access to the exhibition hall, and the other would lead to the arena.

A new “multipurpose venue and education studios” would provide practice and learning space behind the existing concert hall in hopes of attracting more innovative events and allow for better scheduling flexibility.

The rebuilt exhibition hall would provide improved access to loading and storage areas as well as covered and terraced areas for pre-event functions. The plan also calls for a ground-level satellite city hall and commercial space aimed at drawing people onto the complex on non-event days. Additional commercial space is envisioned in new structures just makai of the arena, along Kapiolani Boulevard.

A renovated concert hall would include expanding and enclosing the lobby to create an air-conditioned pre-function space and improved concession space.

The revamped arena would enclose the structure’s facade in glass and include a new cafeteria and ticketing area.

Scattered throughout the complex would be lawn areas and water features in an effort to transform it into “a park-like setting as a destination and neighborhood amenity.” The largest open area would front the exhibition hall along Ward Avenue.

Planning efforts for the Blaisdell renovation project began in February 2015 when about 170 people attended a workshop similar to Thursday’s. Three alternative plans were derived from an analysis of existing conditions, public input and market research. From there the city selected a preferred alternative that is now subject to public input, meetings with stakeholders and physical, financial and construction feasibility.

Go to imagineblaisdell.com for more information. A PDF of the feasibility study and conceptual plan can be found toward the bottom of that webpage.