The Aloha Stadium Authority is scheduled shortly to convene a special committee to help guide it in seeking possible development of the stadium site.
But the hush-hush Request For Proposal Evaluation Committee’s work comes on the heels of Gov. David Ige’s doubts about whether the state has the money to rebuild the aging facility.
“I don’t believe that we have the funds to rebuild (Aloha Stadium) right now,” Ige told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser Editorial Board on Friday in response to a question about its future. “There are many other more important priorities. So, I think that the best thing we can do is keep it maintained and take care of health and safety issues.”
The committee, whose membership has not been disclosed, is tasked with aggregating information and eventually making a recommendation to the Authority and the State Comptroller as the state considers the future of the 41-year-old facility.
Officials have said an earlier request for information has drawn interest among some potential developers and a public-private partnership is one possibility to be explored.
Possible elements could include retail and transit-oriented development, including a hotel. Officials declined to disclose the respondents to the earlier non-binding RFI citing proprietary reasons, but said they represent, “some of the top firms in the (stadium construction) industry” with local partners.
Even maintaining the present 50,000-seat stadium comes with a huge price tag, consultants have told the Authority. In a March briefing, the Authority was told it will cost $200 million just to address health and safety concerns necessary to keep the facility operational for another 30 years.
To build a new 30,000- to 35,000-seat stadium at the current site would cost $134 million to $300 million, depending on materials and amenities, the Authority was told in the briefing.
The figures for both estimates are in 2014 dollars, the Authority was told.
Officials declined to disclose the size of the RFP Evaluation Committee or confirm that it has nine members, including some outside the Stadium Authority, citing the “integrity of the process.”