Aloha Stadium wasn’t open for business Monday due to COVID-19 restrictions, but interest in the New Aloha Stadium Entertainment District project managed to draw about 200 participants from development and building industries to an online conference.

State officials and consultants held the 1-hour, 9-minute conference to explain details of the request for qualifications process and answer questions from prospective respondents concerning the RFQ.

“We’re thrilled that approximately 200 individuals from various companies participated online in the RFQ pre-response conference,” said Chris Kinimaka, public works administrator for the Department of Accounting and General Services.

“A lot of information was shared and we were able to answer several questions which will be helpful as the companies prepare their responses,” Kinimaka said. “This is an important P3 project for the state of Hawaii and we’re pleased with the experienced and highly qualified companies that are interested in it.”

The state issued its 61-page RFQ March 27 and respondents have until May 12 to list their qualifications for consideration to design, build, finance and manage the public-private partnership that calls for a new $350 million stadium and ancillary development on the 98-acre site in Halawa.

From the RFQ responses, in about a month, the state will select a priority list of up to three respondents to receive requests for proposals. Priority-listed respondents will be required to submit a security deposit/bond of $250,000.

Projections call for the winning developer to be under contract in the first quarter of 2021 with the new stadium opening in Sept. 2023.

The state had originally set April 29 as the deadline for responses but moved it to May 12. “Companies asked for some more time to deal with the difficulties of providing a timely response due to COVID-19 related difficulties prohibiting normal business communications,” said Stacey Jones, owner and principal of Crawford Architects, a state consultant on the project.

State presentations at a national conference in San Diego last May and in Honolulu in October attracted prospective developers and builders from several states and at least three countries, officials have said.