It seems like Aloha Stadium all over again: an important public facility, built at considerable expense with taxpayer money, slowly but inexorably rotting away while government officials dither.
The Hawaii Convention Center’s roof has been leaking for years, causing water intrusion, cracks, rust and calcium leaching from concrete. Patching up the damage after major rains has cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, while rendering parts of the center unsightly or worse, unusable — in particular the rooftop terrace deck, a popular spot for conventioneers.
The Hawaii Tourism Authority (HTA) has asked the Legislature for an estimated $64 million to repair its roof deck and install shades over part of the terrace — a permanent fix that presumably would stop the decay and restore full use of the facility. That doesn’t even include an estimated $80 million in other deferred maintenance.
Instead, the Legislature in its last session provided $15 million for temporary repairs that would prevent the use of the terrace deck and last about two to five years.
Why? Because lawmakers want to think about it some more, according to HTA board chair George Kam. Last session, the Legislature appropriated $500,000 to study the center’s future, including adding a hotel or developing the surrounding area.
“What you don’t want to do is spend all the money and then build a hotel right where you just built a brand-new roof,” Kam said.
Of course not. But waiting on studies year after year has its own costs: continuing to pour money into Band-Aid patches that do nothing to enhance the value of the center, while losing top-drawer conventions because the place is run down. Not to mention inflation. And as any homeowner with common sense knows, if you don’t fix the roof, your whole house eventually will become uninhabitable.
Based on past history, the odds don’t look good. The roof has been a problem since the center opened in 1998. And this isn’t the only time ambitious dreams have stopped necessary repairs. HTA and the Legislature spent the last 15 years and $800,000 studying the possibility of creating a Center for Hawaiian Music and Dance on the rooftop, only to abandon the project because of the price tag: a whopping $98 million.
Now, the best-case scenario would be if all the players involved, including the HTA, the Legislature and the Green administration, would somehow stop dithering and either commit to fixing the center’s structural problems properly — and promptly — or launch a major redevelopment of the convention center in two to five years. Do one or the other, but please: Do something.
