Editorial: On new path for stadium, housing

Uncertainty has swirled for years around the project of redeveloping Aloha Stadium and its surrounding property — 98 acres of state-owned land — so the disruption in plans revealed on Tuesday should not have been such a shocker.

Except: It was. Almost everyone closely involved with the project was taken by surprise when Gov. David Ige signaled that his administration would be going “in a different direction” on what has been called the New Aloha Stadium Entertainment District.

The route change came to light in an email sent late last week from Ige’s chief of staff, Linda Chu Takayama, to comptroller Curt Otaguro to stop work on the request for proposal (RFP) process. This halted planning both for the $350 million stadium itself and for the district’s privately funded real estate elements, according to the email that the Honolulu Star-Advertiser obtained.

Although Ige indicated the full reveal on the plans won’t come for a few weeks, this already should be taken as a sign the outgoing administration is refocusing the project on what should have been the prime target all along: the stadium itself.

And the governor also is definitive that building a stadium at Halawa is still his intent, noting that he has accepted the project’s environmental impact statement with that location designated. This is also encouraging news.

But the exact shape of the RFP process that follows is disconcertingly unclear — except the aim of “simplifying the project so we can accelerate it as quickly as possible,” as Ige said Wednesday in the Star-Advertiser’s “Spotlight Hawaii” webcast.

The governor observed that the plan to find a private partner for the design, building, financing and management of the project no longer made sense with the current climate of rising interest rates in the private market, and he might be right.

Instead, he said in the webcast, the fiscal landscape changed when the state Legislature provided sufficient funding for the stadium itself: $350 million in general obligation bonds, and $50 million for operations.

Ige additionally noted the lawmakers’ decision to shift overall custody of the project from the state Department of Accounting and General Services to the Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism (DBEDT). This presented the opportunity — the obligation, really — to rethink the approach.

Of course, Ige’s Cabinet will be on its way out when he completes this second term as governor. What he is essentially doing is putting replacement of the stadium front and center, allowing the pace on the project to pick up while the next administration settles in.

It is exasperating, though, that so much political push-and-pull over the years has muddled and mired the project. Already, the halting progress on the stadium compelled the University of Hawaii football program, the anchor tenant, to adapt a smaller football field on campus to meet its needs. The upgrading of the Clarence T.C. Ching Athletics Complex is looking like a smarter decision every day.

Even with this simpler game plan, the appointment of the next head of DBEDT is going to be a key decision by the next governor. A final public-private partnership will be chosen for the hands-on work, but having someone with experience to helm a complex project will be crucial. Getting the site ready to accommodate affordable housing will be part of the larger job, Ige added.

“I do think the concept of an entertainment district still makes sense, but what we’re focused on is the stadium itself,” he said.

Good. And let the community’s own desires for the facility’s function — tailgating parties and all — have real weight in the discussions. This will be Hawaii’s stadium, and it should be geared to fit Hawaii’s needs.