Regents to consider approval of $27.5 million Inouye center

The University of Hawaii administration plans to ask the Board of Regents today to give the go-ahead on a proposed $27.5 million facility to house the congressional papers of the late U.S. Sen. Daniel Inouye.

The Manoa center is on UH’s list of capital improvement projects that the regents will consider for approval and that will then be added to the university’s supplemental budget request to the governor and Legislature.

About $10 million of the $25 million estimated construction total is identified by UH as federal funds that it intends to seek once the regents approve the plan. The other $15 million would be raised through the sale of state general obligation bonds.

Another $2.5 million, including $1 million in private donations, is projected to pay for design and planning studies and other so-called soft costs, bringing the total estimated price tag to $27.5 million.

Inouye, 88, died in December. He was one of the most significant and influential political figures of Hawaii’s statehood era and was instrumental in getting hundreds of millions of federal dollars flowing into the local economy.

University officials have said they are trying to expedite construction of a facility on the Manoa campus because they don’t have appropriate space to house Inouye’s papers, make them available to the public and offer other Inouye-related academic, research and civic engagement programs.

Inouye’s papers are en route to UH, and university officials expect to take three years to process the material, after which it will become available to the public. UH officials hope to have a new facility open by then.

The cost of the proposed center and the speed in which the university has been pursuing it has generated criticism, particularly in light of UH’s tough fiscal environment. Students have been hit with substantial tuition increases, and the university has accumulated a substantial backlog of needed repairs for some of its aging buildings.

At $27.5 million in estimated construction and design costs, the proposed facility — projected to be 15,000 to 20,000 square feet — could become the priciest new building on a per-square-foot basis that UH has pursued in years.

But some funding is expected to come from private sources.

Denise Konan, dean of UH-Manoa’s College of Social Sciences and the lead administrator on the project, said in a statement to the Star-Advertiser that a $1 million goal in private donations already has been met.

What’s more, UH has partnered with the Hawaii Community Foundation, the Inouye family and his close staff to raise additional funds.

Jennifer Sabas, Inouye’s former chief of staff, said those overseeing a foundation fund established to raise money to help preserve the late senator’s legacy already have committed to donating several million dollars to UH to support the facility and its programs.

The university has yet to sign a planning and design contract for the Inouye center. Konan said UH still is negotiating the agreement.

The consultants would help UH settle on the size and scope of the project.