HONOLULU — The state has received encouraging feedback from prospective developers and builders for the rebooted New Aloha Stadium Entertainment Project, according to the chairman of the Aloha Stadium Authority.
The NASED team, including Department of Accounting and General Services public works administrator Chris Kinimaka and Authority board members, have engaged in a series of meetings with prospective bidders to gauge their interest in the revised edition of the large public-private partnership project.
They include the three teams who were named finalists the first time around when the contract procurement process was split between the stadium and its outlying mixed-use land, Authority chairman Brennon Morioka told Spectrum News at Thursday’s monthly stadium board meeting at the shuttered Halawa venue.
A market-sounding meeting was held in mid-June to gauge initial interest, about two weeks after Gov. Josh Green and the Authority agreed on a new direction to pursue a Design, Build, Operate and Maintain agreement with one private entity that will construct not just a 25,000-seat stadium, but the 70-acre district around it to subsidize its investment.
One-on-one meetings with individual entities took place this week, Morioka said. The goal remains to issue a Request for Qualifications by the end of the year to winnow the pool of bidders to three, as a precursor to release a full Request for Proposals with specific desired details for the stadium and district by the summer of 2024.
The hope is to have a full contract in place with the chosen private entity by the midpoint of 2025. At that point, dismantling of old Aloha Stadium would commence with the goal of having the new stadium operational by the 2028 University of Hawaii football season.
“It’s been going really well. (At) the original meeting, we had about 165 attendees, (and) got a lot of feedback from them,” Morioka said. “But the 1-on-1s that we’ve been doing, a lot of great feedback (has) been coming back from them to help us inform what is of interest, what is not of interest, what they would like to see to make it more attractive in the RFP part, when we’re actually putting the project out there.”
The NASED project was originally slated for completion in 2023 before the COVID-19 pandemic, and conflicting opinions from stakeholders contributed to repeated delays.
During NASED’s initial Request for Qualifications process in 2020, three teams were selected as finalists for the stadium. They were Aloha Stadium District Partners, Aloha Stadium Hui Hilina‘i and Waiola Development Partners and combined international, national and local experience.
Those three teams, along with others, are in the mix, Morioka said.
“Everybody so far has expressed continued interest,” he said. “Things may change once we issue what the final project is going to look like, but right now, that’s why we’re very optimistic about the conversations, because everyone’s expressed continued interest in the project.”
Morioka was among a state team that went to San Diego for the 2023 Convention, Sports and Entertainment Facilities Conference on July 17 and 18. He was impressed by San Diego State’s Snapdragon Stadium, he said, as an example of what could be accomplished with the stadium in Halawa.
Chris Sadayasu, who was present at the meeting, was announced as deputy stadium manager, effective July 14.
Sadayasu was rejected in March by the Hawaii Senate as Green’s nominee to lead the Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism.
Stadium Manager Ryan Andrews said Sadayasu’s background in real estate law, contracts and asset management will be important for the stadium team as it transitions from a venue operations entity to a real estate overseer in the coming years.
“Chris has worked at several positions with the state dating back to 2001. He also has spent a few years in private law practice specializing in real estate transactions and land use,” Andrews said.
Brian McInnis covers the state's sports scene for Spectrum News Hawaii. He can be reached at brian.mcinnis@charter.com.
