Aloha Stadium, plagued by rust for most of its 46-year life span, is now plagued by indecision and uncertainty over its replacement, to be built on 98 acres of state-owned land in Halawa.
The latest twists in this constantly evolving project plan do not inspire confidence in delivery of the new facility with long-term cost controls. Further, the public should be concerned whether the state can realize the hoped-for affordable housing inventory through the multi-use redevelopment of the 78 acres surrounding the stadium itself.
Due to a recent financing change, private developers would front much of the stadium cost, projected to be at least $350 million. That is likely to cost taxpayers much more than a previous plan for general obligation bonds that can be repaid at a lower rate.
It is something that should give Gov. David Ige pause as he considers the plan lawmakers passed this past session. The enabling legislation, House Bill 1348, merits a serious look to determine how well the public interest would be served.
Time is of the essence. Ige has until June 21 to list the bills he intends to veto. He could be a hard sell on HB 1348: As recently as February, the governor was not convinced that the state could afford to redevelop the stadium right now.
And come July, the state Department of Accounting and General Services (DAGS) is expected to issue a request for proposals on replacing the 50,000-seat stadium with one to seat 35,000. An agreement would be negotiated in about a year.
Also that month, DAGS plans to issue a request for qualifications on the real-estate portion of the project, to be followed by a request for proposals. This is envisioned to yield some 3,300 homes, 650 hotel rooms, retail space and offices, built out over a few decades.
The state would issue a 99-year lease on the land in a deal designed to generate revenue that would at least partially offset the public cost.
But on the stadium replacement, the cost scales seem to be weighing more heavily on the taxpayers’ side of the ledger.
The original plan set the rebuild at $350 million, with $180 million to be financed through revenue bonds, a debt to be repaid through revenue the development would produce. However, it became clear the property would not produce revenue soon enough to cover the bonds.
Unfortunately, the pandemic drained the state budget. That’s why legislators ultimately opted for developers to provide that financing instead of issuing more general obligation bonds.
In addition to closing the project’s budgetary holes, HB 1348 also would broaden the powers and duties of the Stadium Authority to include holding title to, and leading development on, the entire zone, dubbed the New Aloha Stadium Entertainment District. It also establishes the Stadium Development Special Fund, in which revenues from the district would be collected by the authority.
This vests the authority with a scope of work beyond its experience. The entity would enter into a memorandum of agreement with DAGS and the Hawaii Community Development Authority to implement the project, but it’s altogether unclear how well that would work — an unsettling prospect for a project as large-scale and crucial as this one.
Most importantly, the state can’t risk losing yet another rare opportunity to realize critically needed affordable housing on land that it owns.
Private partners could end up driving much of this state redevelopment project. Fronting the costs may solve the short-term fiscal problem, but taxpayers need some sense of the ultimate cost, and of what they’ll be getting for their money, before the state goes too far down this road.
