The University of Hawaii, facing pressure to monetize some of its properties to offset its budget, plans to pay the U.S Department of Education $11.2 million to escape a requirement that it use the 105,000-square-foot Hangar 111 at Kalaeloa Airport for educational and research purposes only.

In this case, the university seems to be following the adage that, “You have to spend money to make money,” in the reuse of the huge former World War II hangar that it inherited in 2000.

The university wants to spend $11,173,500 to abrogate an agreement with the U.S. Department of Education, the previous owner of the hangar, and eliminate DOE covenants restricting the use of the property to educational and research purposes.

A Honolulu Community College flight training program operated out of Hangar 111 until September of 2016. UH also received approval to construct and run its defense-related Applied Research Laboratory there until the program was relocated in 2018.

The cavernous hangar is vacant now.

“With no educational or research programs currently identified to immediately utilize the property, the university is seeking the flexibility to allow third parties to use (the) property for commercial purposes to benefit the University of Hawaii,” a staff report states.

But UH says it doesn’t have a commercial use lined up yet.

“The university does not have any specific next use identified,” spokesman Dan Meisenzahl said in an email. The abrogation is to allow for a wider range of potential users as well as other UH programs, he said.

The plan is up for review today at 1 p.m. before the UH board of regents committee on planning and facilities. However, the university noted the state Legislature already appropriated $11.5 million and UH requested release of the funds.

The change brings with it criticism from an aviation community unhappy with the potential loss of not just one big hangar, but both of the behemoth structures built during World War II at Naval Air Station Barbers Point.

According to a Historic American Building Survey, adjacent Hangars 110 and 111 were the first such structures built at the base when they were completed in 1942.

The Navy base was shuttered in 1999 and land and facilities were parceled off to many entities. The U.S. Department of Education conveyed Hangar 111 and 4.5 acres to the university in 2000 — with the educational covenants, but at no cost to UH other than upkeep.

The state Department of Transportation Airports Division owns Hangar 110.

“My personal opinion is that ($11.2 million payment) is a lot of money — not knowing what is going in there,” said Rob Moore, a pilot, former president of the General Aviation Council of Hawaii and Aircraft Owner and Pilots Association representative at the airfield now known as Kalaeloa.

“That will take the yoke off of what can go in there — but you compare that to the fact that if they had stuck with any education program, they would have paid basically a dollar a year to stay in that building,” Moore said.

Moore previously suggested keeping the flight school at the hangar but tying it to UH-West Oahu, and moving the Honolulu Community College airframe and power plant school there from Lagoon Drive “where it is charged exorbitant rent.”

The General Aviation Council of Hawaii sent a letter last Thursday, meanwhile, to the head of the Western Pacific Federal Aviation Administration voicing opposition to plans by DOT to lease Hangar 110 to the federal government for emergency response to catastrophes in the Pacific.

The FAA gave over $20 million in grants to pay for hangar refurbishment, the group said.

“Unfortunately, during recent state administrations, the Hawaii Department of Transportation has chosen to sacrifice general aviation in order to target precious airport land for uses that produce higher revenues for the state,” the letter said.

The “only way to protect general aviation in Hawaii is for the FAA to enforce its rules concerning continued aviation use of facilities that have been awarded FAA funding,” the letter states.

The FAA previously said the planned federal use is “considered an allowable aeronautical use.”

The agreed-upon lease for Hangar 110 is with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and its Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response and the National Institutes of Health.

DOT said it anticipates the federal groups will assume lease of the hangar “soon.” A state lease notice said annual rent would be $1.3 million.

There have been some opportunities to use UH’s Hangar 111. The Solar Impulse 2 aircraft, with a wingspan of 236 feet, spent nine months in the hangar in 2015-16 when the solar-powered plane needed repairs after flying from Japan on an around-the-world trip and then had to wait for a better flight window before heading on to California.

No rent was paid during the stay.

“They were willing to pay, (but) we weren’t able to accept any pay” due to the restrictions, Meisenzahl said. Educational tours of the solar plane were offered to the public.