Following a five-month, $3 million renovation, the Hawaii Suites have reopened for public use inside the Neal S. Blaisdell Center’s Exhibition Hall, city officials say.
Constructed as an addition to the center’s Exhibition Hall in 1993, the 12 meeting rooms, known as the Hawaii Suites, provide for flexible spaces to accommodate smaller events and breakout rooms or to expand the capacity of the exhibition space, the city says.
The work included upgrades to address safety, energy efficiency and deferred maintenance. New features offer movable acoustic divider walls, new air handlers and thermostat controls for each room, energy-saving “dimmable” lighting, new commercial quality flooring, wall finishes and solar shades to modernize the facility, officials said.
“Working in conjunction with our staff and contractor, S&M Sakamoto, we are very pleased to have this five-month renovation project completed on-time and on-budget so we can promptly resume business and reopen our doors to host our community events, meetings and activities,” Dita Holifield, city Department of Enterprises Services director, said in a written statement.
The first event to kick off the reopening of the Hawaii Suites will be held Sunday, welcoming the return of the Wiki Wiki One Day Vintage Collectibles and Hawaiiana Show, an annual event at the Blaisdell Center for the past 32 years, the city says.
Blaisdell Center, at 777 Ward Ave. — formerly called the Hawaii International Center — was built in 1964. The Exhibition Hall and the facility’s administrative building, including the Galleria and Box Office, were last renovated in 1992.
Meanwhile, larger renovations are underway at Blaisdell Center.
In February the city began the $43.6 million campuswide capital improvement projects managed by the city’s Department of Design and Construction and headed up by its consultants, Pacific Architects Inc. and WCIT.
The work — to be done on the center’s arena and concert hall — will provide new lighting and electrical systems, new fire sprinklers, roofing and air conditioning, among other upgrades. Of those, the concert hall is expected to be shuttered for a full year.
According to the city, events that cannot be held at Blaisdell Center during renovations could be held at other venues including the Waikiki Shell.
In March, John Condrey, the city’s project manager, said it took roughly six years to prepare a master plan for the major renovation of Blaisdell Center.
That plan — done largely under former Mayor Kirk Caldwell’s administration — initially pegged the cost to renovate the 22-acre entertainment venue at about $400 million. A subsequent draft environmental impact statement saw that cost rise to about $773 million, as it involved demolition of the center’s arena, Exhibition Hall and parking garage.
In 2020 the Caldwell administration halted the Blaisdell renovation, due in part to the rising cost of the city’s rail line project.
“When it was clear that wasn’t going forward … that’s when we constructed this quick budget,” Condrey told the Honolulu Star- Advertiser in March, noting city staffers took steps to advance the Blaisdell renovation but at a reduced cost. “These guys put their heads together and said, ‘This is the bare minimum, this is what we have to do to make the campus work for the next 20 years.’”
The arena’s closure dates will run through November. The concert hall is anticipated to be closed through June 30. Overall, the city says the construction projects will not require any full campus closures.
For more information about the project, visit blaisdellcenter.com or email blaisdellinfo@ honolulu.gov.
