Two officials behind the long-running effort to redevelop Aloha Stadium are raising concerns about Gov. David Ige’s recent decision to modify the plan, saying it will result in more delay and a lesser product.

Aloha Stadium manager Ryan Andrews and Chris Kinimaka, public works administrator with the state Department of Accounting and General Services, suggested Wednesday on the Honolulu Star-Advertiser’s “Spotlight Hawaii” livestream program that Ige’s recent decision to move in a new direction with the project is misguided and won’t accelerate production of a new stadium in Halawa as the governor intends.

Andrews said he doesn’t know what specific changes Ige wants to make to the public-private partnership plan for replacing 47-year-old Aloha Stadium, but that altering well-developed existing procurement work won’t achieve the goal faster.

“I don’t know what his plan is, but I can tell you that we are so far along in our procurement that we are ready to move and proceed, and we actually have been for quite some time,” Andrews said. “We’ve been waiting for that green light. So I think my concern is any change at this point will cause a delay or will cause us to have to start over, and that’s what I would hate to see is to start this process over and to kick this project out even further.

“So I would just hate to see the schedule slip, and I think any change at this point is going to cause that.”

Kinimaka agreed that “any change that occurs now will delay the project. They’ll pretty much have to start with procurement all over again because you cannot take what we’ve developed, which honestly is a 1,000-page request for proposals for the stadium alone, and pick pieces apart.”

She also took issue with Ige’s claim that $350 million appropriated by the Legislature is enough to produce a new roughly 35,000-seat stadium without any financial contribution by a private development partner.

The $350 million appropriation was based on a 2017 cost estimate, which doesn’t account for inflation over the past six years, including a spike in construction material prices this year.

Kinimaka said that just between the end of last year and June, the estimated cost to replace Aloha Stadium has surged by $50 million.

“Anybody who knows the costs of construction and how that has been moving in the construction environment knows that what you could buy for $350 million in 2017 is not what you can buy in 2022, or 2024 when construction is likely to begin,” she said.

Some of the $350 million, Kinimaka also noted, was expected to be used to improve infrastructure for the stadium and surrounding mixed-use development on the 98-acre site, including entryways, parking and a connection to an adjacent city rail station.

Andrews also expressed concern that not having a private developer help finance a new stadium would lead to a scaled-back facility.

Ige’s chief of staff, Linda Chu Takayama, last week instructed DAGS via email not to proceed with issuing two requests for proposals seeking bids from developers to replace the stadium and to add a mix of retail, restaurants, homes, a hotel and other things surrounding a new stadium as part of a New Aloha Stadium Entertainment District, or NASED, approved by the Legislature.

“Please consider tying up any loose ends from your side,” Takayama’s email said in part to DAGS Director Curt Otaguro.

The Stadium Authority, which manages Aloha Stadium and had been administratively attached to DAGS, delegated NASED procurement work to DAGS. But earlier this year, the Legislature moved the Stadium Authority’s attachment to the Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism. Now DBEDT is working on a modified public-private partnership plan to deliver NASED and expects to announce details in about two weeks.

Opening a new stadium was once projected for 2023, and most recently got pushed back to 2027.

At the end of 2020, the Stadium Authority closed Aloha Stadium to spectators because of deferred maintenance issues, which forced the University of Hawaii to hurriedly add seating and other features to its main football practice field in Manoa last year at a cost of $8 million.

UH plans to spend $20 million more to further expand the on-campus facility before next year’s football season starts.

DAGS has spent close to $25 million on NASED work that has included production of an environmental study, land-use approvals, conceptual designs, community outreach, requests for developer qualifications and drafting the proposal requests. Much of this work has been done by a team of private consultants.

Kinimaka previously said NASED’s takeover by DBEDT was a surprise like “a lightning bolt out of the blue,” and on Wednesday she said the NASED team is disappointed that it wasn’t consulted about taking the project in a new direction.

“We are disappointed that we weren’t part of that because of the knowledge base and the partnerships that we bring,” she said. “We could easily help advise them, but we are out of the picture.”

Another concern, raised by Andrews, was whether DBEDT’s new direction will alter the scope of NASED to a degree that isn’t supported by Halawa community stakeholders who have been engaged in planning work for three years.

Andrews said community leaders generally support NASED, and that a major change could break this support built on engagement and trust.

“We don’t want to break that trust,” he said. “We’ve spent too much time building this relationship and we don’t want it to go down the drain.”