Hawaii Convention Center scrapped from plans for proposed Hawaiian music and dance center

Key members of the state House and Senate have agreed to scrap the Hawai‘i Convention Center as the location for a proposed Hawaiian music and dance center after the state spent $800,000 studying the feasibility of the location and coming up with preliminary design and business plans.

Those plans, completed by WCIT Architecture and its subcontractors, envisioned building the facility on top of the downtown Honolulu convention center. The music and dance facility would be a “multi-sensory experience” with live performances, exhibits and educational programming, according to the final report provided by the contractor.

But the Hawaii Tourism Authority, which is in charge of the project, now says that the estimated cost of the center — $98 million — is too expensive and that the Hawai‘i Convention Center’s roof is in need of significant repairs, making it an unsuitable location.

Lawmakers were debating locating the center at the Bishop Museum. But on Tuesday conferees representing the House and Senate agreed to a bill that instead strikes from state law the Hawai‘i Convention Center as the facility’s location without naming a replacement.

State Rep. Richard Onishi (D, South Hilo- Keaau-Honuapo), chairman of the House Committee on Tourism and International Affairs, said that the project’s design is expected to go back out to bid. He said that other entities, other than the Bishop Museum, have expressed interest in the project.

House Bill 420 now needs to pass final votes in the full House and Senate before it can be sent to Gov. David Ige for final decision making.

Plans for the music and dance center, which only exists in concept and has been alternately described as a museum, date back more than a decade.

In 2007 former Gov. Linda Lingle signed into law Act 230, which created the Museum of Hawaiian Music and Dance Committee, which was tasked with producing an overall concept for the center, recommending a location, proposing financing options and completing an initial business plan. The Legislature appropriated up to $160,000 to the committee to complete the work, which resulted in an 82-page report.

The report envisioned a 40,000-square-foot facility on a 5-acre site with an outdoor performance space big enough to accommodate 500 people and a lot with 350 parking stalls and space for tour buses. The facility’s construction cost was estimated at $29 million.

The committee recommended the facility be located somewhere in Kakaako Makai. Maui came in second, with no specific location identified.

The committee also recommended the Legislature appropriate $29 million in design and construction funds, setting 2013 as a target date for completion. But the funding was never appropriated and the center never moved forward.

In 2013 the Legislature passed a law that required $1 million from the transient accommodations tax be allocated to the operation of the proposed music and dance center and that it be located at the Hawai‘i Convention Center. The balance of that fund will be $5.2 million by the end of this fiscal year, according to HTA.

The Hawaii Tourism Authority in 2014 awarded WCIT Architecture a contract, ultimately worth about $800,000, to conduct a feasibility study for the center. DTL Hawaii, a strategy, design and communications firm which includes state Sen. Donovan Dela Cruz (D, Wahiawa-Whitmore-Mililani Mauka), became a key subcontractor for the music and dance center contract.

That contract came under scrutiny last year in a report released by the state auditor. The audit found the scope of the contract had changed dramatically after it was awarded to WCIT, and tourism officials acknowledged that it should have been put back out to bid. Internal HTA emails also noted that “WCIT did not fully deliver a product that we could use,” and discussed the “need to counteract a possible perspective that the $ (HTA) paid for this study was a bust,” according to the audit.

HTA didn’t respond to a request to comment on those findings.

“The concept of developing a Hawaiian Center and Museum of Hawaiian Music and Dance is one that we fully support; however, the challenge has been the requirement of locating the center at the Hawai‘i Convention Center,” said HTA President and CEO Chris Tatum via email. “By removing this requirement, we will then be allowed to work with the community to identify the best location for this very important facility.”