A repeatedly stymied state plan to redevelop Aloha Stadium is once again in danger of upheaval.
The state House of Representatives on Tuesday passed a bill to scuttle the redevelopment project in favor of building a less costly stadium on the University of Hawaii at Manoa campus.
Under House Bill 2664, $400 million in previously approved taxpayer funding to redevelop Aloha Stadium in Halawa through a public-private partnership under a pending solicitation for competitive bids would be canceled, and $211 million would instead be appropriated for UH to build a new stadium on its flagship campus.
State administrators involved in the Aloha Stadium project oppose the bill, as does the university’s chief financial officer.
Still, a majority of House members decided to pass the bill Tuesday on a 35-14 vote that will send the measure to the Senate for consideration. Four of the favorable votes were made with reservations, and two House members were excused.
Rep. Andrew Garrett (D, Manoa), the bill’s lead introducer, said Tuesday in a floor speech that his motivation is partly to reclaim previously appropriated funding to help pay for much higher-than-expected Maui wildfire recovery costs and partly to give the university in his district assurance that it will have a stadium for football games.
“Everything must be on the table as we decide how to salvage our financial plan for this supplemental year … In this type of fiscal emergency, there can be no sacred cows, ” he told his colleagues.
Garrett also said the proposed change would allow the Halawa site to perhaps be redeveloped more with affordable housing.
A few dissenting House members who spoke against the bill on the floor Tuesday said it would undermine the state’s ability to do business with private partners, and swap a centralized site on Oahu that can support a stadium for many uses with an inferior site with use limitations.
“The UH location is a loser, ” said Rep. Gene Ward (R, Hawaii Kai-Kalama Valley).
If the bill becomes law, it would upend an effort that has been in the works for close to a decade and endured prior abrupt changes to financing and partnership arrangements that have added time and expense to the project known as the New Aloha Stadium Entertainment District.
Critics of the latest proposal said enacting the bill would waste years of work and about $25 million already spent on the rede velopment plan, while impairing envisioned development of a new community on the 98-acre Halawa site featuring several thousand homes, retail, restaurants, a hotel and other commercial uses next to a city rail station anchored by a new, roughly 30, 000-seat stadium.
Keith Regan, director of the state Department of Accounting and General Serv ices, warned that enacting the bill could expose the state to claims from development and finance entities who have devoted resources to the project’s procurement, while also damaging the state’s ability to replace the decaying 50,000-seat stadium in Halawa whose stands were condemned in 2020.
The Stadium Authority and the state Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism also oppose the bill.
Ryan Andrews, stadium manager, questioned the feasibility of trying to develop a mixed-use community on the stadium site in Halawa without a new stadium there.
Questions also have been raised over whether UH Manoa, which converted a practice field on campus into a temporary game venue with seating for 15, 000 fans, can accommodate a bigger and better stadium for its own use and perhaps other uses.The Legislature is scheduled to wrap up its 2024 session May 3.
If the existing plan to redevelop Aloha Stadium in Halawa survives, detailed proposals are expected to be received by the end of July from two or three finalist teams, and a goal is to have a signed contract with a winning bidder by June 2025.
