Ferd Lewis: Vision for Aloha Stadium replacement starts to come into focus

By affixing his signature to just-passed legislation, Gov. David Ige can begin the process of turning Aloha Stadium from a rapidly deteriorating rust bucket into … a stadium development district?

It will sit amid the same 98.6-acre parcel that the stadium has occupied in Halawa since 1975. (The old stadium to be demolished after the adjacent new one rises).

Except, that under House Bill 1586, which was adopted by the Legislature, the state is daring to move beyond the concept of a mere stand-alone stadium, something that has been the norm since before venerable Honolulu Stadium attracted its first termites in 1926.

For most of Aloha Stadium’s years, when the facility was dark the only economic activity has been the three-days-a-week swap meet in the parking lot.

The swap meet is expected to remain in some form, but for its planned $350 million investment, the state now envisions making fuller, mixed use of land the bill describes as having “… vast, unmet community development needs.”

For a state too often entrenched in bureaucracy, the bill represents a bold, if long due, solution of how to re-imagine its largest entertainment venue and how to execute the conversion.

Rep. Sylvia Luke (D-Makiki, Punchbowl, Nuuanu), a prime mover and shaper of the legislation as head of the powerful House Finance Committee, said, “This is not just about the stadium, it is about economic opportunity and developing the entire area.”

It is a concept that has thrived in several metropolitan areas of late, including Atlanta and Los Angeles, and, with the coming of rail and transit-oriented development, offers particularly opportune possibilities here.

But the best chance of realizing them, it became clear, would be by not allowing the project to get bogged down in the usual morass of red tape that delays completion, runs up costs and sours public confidence that has haunted too many government projects.

Luke said, “Sometimes what happens when you have a government project is that it, in itself, has certain difficulties and challenges. So, we were thinking: How do you build a stadium under the best conditions? How do we maximize discussion with developers and, at the same time, think of possible revenue generation for the payment of the debt service for the stadium and get away from some of the governmental regulatory framework that is embedded in government contract work?”

Luke said, “That’s why (we’ve) charged the Hawaii Community Development Authority to be the development arm for the stadium.” The HCDA, which has overseen Kakaako development, has the experience in public-private ventures that other state agencies lack, officials said.

The plan, once the ongoing environmental impact statement is completed, is to seek bids from prospective developers who would lease land around the stadium for mixed-use development for up to 99 years.

The proceeds from those agreements would reimburse the state general fund for costs, including interest and principal, of the reimbursable general obligation bonds, as well as provide stadium operating funds, plans suggest.

The measure before Gov. Ige calls for the state to issue $150 million in reimbursable general obligation bonds, $150 million in general obligation bonds and $50 million in general revenue for the building of the stadium.

After years of vacillation on a decision about the fate of crumbling Aloha Stadium, we wait to see if HB 1586 and its implementation can become the anti-rail, actually delivering on its promise.

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