Restrictions lifted on Aloha Stadium site

It took city, state and federal government officials assisted by attorneys and others, but the paperwork to lift restrictions against using the 98-acre Aloha Stadium property for anything other than recreation is officially done.

The Aloha Stadium Authority announced the official lifting of restrictions Thursday with Gov. David Ige, Lt. Gov. Shan Tsutsui, Mayor Kirk Caldwell and federal officials.

Eliminating the restrictions had been agreed to last year by key city, state and federal agencies, leaving only work to draft, sign and record documents. Now all of that has been completed, ending what has been called a landmark effort involving at least seven years of negotiations that at one point appeared at an impasse.

“It took a collaborative effort and thoughtful engagement by many, especially Lt. Gov. Shan Tsutsui on behalf of the state, Mayor Caldwell on behalf of the city as well as federal leaders at the National Park Service and Department of the Interior to reach this important milestone,” Ige said in a statement.

With the restrictions gone, the state is free to replace the 42-year-old rusted stadium on expensive life support with a new facility surrounded by other uses that could include retail and residences that produce income for the state.

Tsutsui said in a statement that such redevelopment can help spur economic growth by creating a mixed-use neighborhood where people gather, eat and shop before and after events at a new stadium.

“The transfer of the federal deed restriction paves the way for the construction of a much-needed new stadium, as well as the opportunity for revitalizing the surrounding community,” he said.

Caldwell, in a statement, added that a city rail station at the site will provide transit-oriented development opportunities and that a new stadium will play a tremendous role in future growth of the Halawa area.

Use of the stadium property was restricted because of conditions for using federal land to develop the stadium in 1975. The Interior Department provided 56 acres to the city in 1967, and the city conveyed this property along with more land to the state in 1970. As conditions for the transfers, the federal agency and the city attached restrictions to property deeds that mandated only recreational or park use of the land.

A key to lifting the restrictions was putting a similar restriction on the 66-acre Central Maui Regional Sports Complex, which is close to being completed with facilities that include baseball, softball and soccer fields.

It will be up to state leaders to determine whether or how to proceed with redevelopment of the Halawa site.

Earlier this month the Stadium Authority approved a 181-page report that recommends building a new stadium with 30,000 to 40,000 seats along with a three-level parking structure.

The report estimated the new stadium would cost $325 million as opposed to $423 million to keep the existing facility operational for another 25 years.

Additionally, the report said a new stadium and rail station would serve as anchors that could attract 2.6 million square feet of mixed-use development that could defray the cost of the new stadium and be worth $1.5 billion in economic benefits to the state.

After operations stabilize, a new stadium could generate about $5.2 million in annual income for the state, the report said.