Board projects new Aloha Stadium’s completion for 2028 season

CINDY ELLEN RUSSELL / CRUSSELL@STARADVERTISER.COM

The state will likely miss a self-imposed deadline Monday, but Stadium Authority board members said at Thursday’s monthly meeting they don’t see it affecting the overall timeline that still has a new Aloha Stadium in Halawa built in time for the 2028 football season.

A state committee is in weekly meetings with Aloha Halawa District Partners, a conglomerate that is the lone preferred offeror for the New Aloha Stadium Entertainment District project, which also covers 78 acres around the 20 covered by the stadium.

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After a second contender pulled out in July, some state officials said this phase might be completed ahead of schedule in mid-September since only one group needed to be evaluated.

But the five-member committee appointed by the state comptroller has made a request for clarifications to AHDP’s proposal, which includes master-planning the entire district for 20 years.

“So it’s going through that detailed response, (and) that process still continues,” Aloha Stadium deputy manager Chris Sadayasu said at Thursday’s meeting.

Once an agreement is reached, the companies comprising AHDP would receive $450 million authorized by the state Legislature to build and run the stadium, and in exchange can profit from other NASED development. If the public-private partnership works as planned, taxpayers incur no additional stadium costs, and housing and other real estate gets built in the area.

After AHDP meets the state committee requirements, there are another nine months of negotiations before the old stadium is demolished so work can start on the new one.

Stadium Authority Chair Brennon Morioka said Thursday he still foresees groundbreaking in 2025, and 2028 for completion of stadium construction.

AHDP would be responsible for designing, building, operating and maintaining a new multiuse stadium with a capacity for at least 25,000 people and the development of a wide variety of real estate on 73 acres of state land around the stadium.

AHDP includes local, national and international companies, with Development Ventures Group Inc., Stanford Carr Development LLC, Ameresco Inc. and Aloha Stadium Community Development LLC (The Cordish Co.) as the lead equity members.

RMA Architects, Populous, SB Architects, Henning Larsen, Alakea Design Group and WCIT Architects comprise the design team, while Hawaiian Dredging Construction Co. Inc. and AECOM Hunt make up the construction team. Castle &Cooke Hawai‘i and Wilson Okamoto Corp. are also team members.

AHDP is prohibited from commenting publicly while negotiating for the job.