Aloha Stadium replacement plan takes giant leap forward

As rust-flaked Aloha Stadium prepares for its 44th year of operation, the process of determining the future of the deteriorating edifice has taken a significant step out of the blocks.

State Sen. Glenn Wakai (D, Kalihi, Pearl Harbor) characterizes Gov. David Ige’s recent release of $10 million to the Stadium Special Fund as “… the firing of the starting gun — and the race is on.”

As a “race” it is more of an ultra marathon than a sprint. This phase of the process, which begins with a solicitation of requests for proposals for the commissioning of an environmental impact study and master plan, could take 18 to 24 months, officials have said. Actual completion of a new stadium on the current 98-acre site, if eventually approved, might not come until the facility reaches its 50th birthday — or beyond.

With funds earmarked by the last session of the legislature, the scope of the optimization plan, “… includes studies and related planning work for the demolition of the existing Aloha Stadium and for development and construction of a new stadium facility for the State of Hawaii. Consideration includes mixed use development of the entire Aloha Stadium site,” according to the General Appropriations Act of 2017.

“This is an important ‘next step’ in de-risking the project as we learn more about (the) stadium and its land through the process,” Stadium Authority chairman Ross Yamasaki said in an email. “It is anticipated that this information will help guide our development decisions going forward.”

The latest moves follow on the heels of the success last year of what had been a decades-long pursuit to lift federal and city deed restrictions on the property that had limited commercial activities since the late 1960s, when the land was initially made available to the state for sports and recreation.

With the planned opening of an adjacent rail station and opportunity for transit-oriented development and based upon a conceptual redevelopment report by its consultants, the Stadium Authority last year recommended support of the construction of a new, smaller facility and ancillary development on the current site.

Instead of the present 50,000-seating capacity, the Authority and its consultants have recommended a 30,000- to 35,000-seat stadium expandable to 40,000 seats.

The stadium opened in 1975 at a cost of $37 million and the price of a new, smaller facility was pegged at nearly 10 times that in 2017 dollars, according to the conceptual redevelopment report.

The Stadium Authority envisions defraying some of those costs through a public-private partnership redevelopment of the nearly 80 acres beyond the stadium’s immediate footprint.

Continuing to operate the current facility would require approximately $300 million just in “critical health and safety repairs” in 2017 dollars and an additional $121 million to bring it up to ADA standards and code compliance, the report said. Costs are projected to rise approximately 5 percent each year thereafter.

What the eventual price tag might look like when — and if — the state gets around to building a new stadium is anybody’s guess, but the one certainty is that it has become a “race” against money as well as time.

Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@staradvertiser.com or 529-4820.