Board overseeing Aloha Stadium briefed on new redevelopment plan

Board members of the state agency long driving Aloha Stadium redevelopment plans were briefed Wednesday on a new plan from Gov. Josh Green, and could take action on it next week.

Stadium Authority board members learned about and discussed the plan presented by Luis Salaveria, the state Department of Budget and Finance director appointed by Green in December, during a 90-minute private executive session at a special meeting.

Green’s plan would have a private developer design, finance, build, operate and maintain a new stadium in Halawa largely or completely paid for by the state under a 30-year ground lease.

The longstanding plan, which has been delayed several years by the Legislature, COVID-19 and other things, calls for a private developer to design, partly finance, develop and maintain — but not operate — a new roughly 35,000-seat stadium.

Green on Monday said he expects a new 25,000-seat stadium can be built for $399.5 million already appropriated by the Legislature, followed by a second phase adding another 10,000 seats.

Another difference between the two strategies is that the original plan called for soliciting a private developer to build a surrounding community with housing, retail, restaurants, stadium parking and other things in tandem with seeking bids for redeveloping the largely condemned 47-year-old “Rust Palace.”

Green’s plan would hold off on soliciting a developer for the surrounding real estate, about 73 acres of the 98-acre site, for an unspecified period.

Members of the 10-­ person board directing Stadium Authority policy include one state department director appointed by Green and other mainly private-sector representatives with experience in finance, construction, planning, sports and management. Two directors representing the University of Hawaii and the state Department of Education are nonvoting members.

At Wednesday’s special meeting, the board was encouraged by Rodney Funakoshi, a retired administrator for the state Office of Planning and Sustainable Development, to reject the changes planned by Green and instead move ahead with issuing two already prepared requests for proposals to replace the stadium and develop the surrounding land.

“Just when I thought the stadium was finally getting on track with Governor Green, we now have another major change that threatens the project with significant delays,” he told the board.

Funakoshi said shifting to a new plan would create more uncertainty for development teams that have already been selected by state procurement officials as being qualified to bid on the two project components.

“All in all, the project is ready to go,” he said.

Herb Schreiner, a UH football season ticket holder who played high-school football in the 50,000-seat Aloha Stadium when it opened in 1975, urged the board to deliver a state-of-the-art stadium with at least 35,000 seats.

“I just want to see something that we can be proud of,” he said.

Salaveria previously told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser that a private entity can operate a new stadium better and more cost-­effectively than the state in addition to more efficiently building and maintaining it.

The new plan, Salaveria also said, was informed by a Feb. 16 economic analysis commissioned from New York-based PFM Financial Advisors LLC suggesting that the value of spending taxpayer revenue on a new stadium is worse under the long- standing plan where higher long-term costs would be paid by the state to a private partner that earns no revenue from stadium operations.

PFM’s analysis claims that the 30-year cost to the state for a new stadium, including financing and maintenance expenses, would be $1.49 billion under the long-standing plan, or nearly $460 million more than a $1.03 billion price tag if the state had no private partner. However, the analysis did not include Green’s proposed twist to have a private partner operate the stadium.

After the Stadium Authority board’s executive session, Vice Chair Brennon Morioka said the briefing was good and that Green administration officials intend to have more meetings with other stakeholders, including state lawmakers.

Morioka said the board’s goal is to have a more clear update on a path forward at the board’s next regularly scheduled meeting next Thursday.