HĀLAWA — On Tuesday morning, the Aloha Stadium Authority held a blessing for its temporary offices in the facility's lower Hālawa parking lot.
Members of the New Aloha Stadium Entertainment District (NASED) and its developer, Aloha Hālawa District Partners (AHDP), were present on Tuesday. Honolulu Mayor Rick Blangiardi, Sen. Glenn Wakai and University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa athletics director Matt Elliott were some of the other names who attended.
It turns out there was plenty more to celebrate.
The temporary offices for the Stadium Authority was a tangible sign of progress in itself — the old offices were located inside Aloha Stadium, which is currently being dismantled in favor of the new one.
In his speech during the blessing, Stanford Carr of AHDP mentioned that NASED and AHDP have agreed in principle on a master development plan, marking the third agreement between the two parties. All that's left to be agreed upon is a Reciprocal Easement Agreement (REA) and the associated Reciprocal Easement Shared Infrastructure Agreement (RESIA).
Carr also says the new planned seating capacity for the new Aloha Stadium is 31,000, a sizable jump from the 22,500 previously announced last August. The stadium will feature individual seating (as opposed to bleacher seating) and approximately 28 luxury suites. The surrounding housing and entertainment district will also have 4,500 housing units, two hotels and retail spaces.
"It's going to be a place for economic revitalization, for homes, for new jobs and events that will showcase Hawai‘i to the planet," Wakai said during his speech.
After the blessing, the first piece of exterior demolition at the current Aloha Stadium took place when a high-reach excavator made contact with the stadium's side awning. Water was also being poured on the awning during the process.
"Whenever you're doing construction, especially when you're ripping out old stuff, you never know what kind of dust and things that will kick up, so you spray it down. That's not uncommon," Aloha Stadium interim manager Michael Yadao explained.
All in all, Yadao says he was extremely pleased with the order of events on Tuesday morning in Hālawa.
"It was incredible. I think today was about making sure that all of our partners were a part of our forward momentum," he said. "It was about making sure that the Governor's office, the private sector, the Mayors the city, that everybody on the stadium authority was on board, and even Senator Wakai and his great vision and leadership, everybody was together to move this forward.
"It was the first event where we were no longer talking about the old stadium, but now we're talking about what it can be. And so I'm over the top happy. If today had only been one of those things, had today just been the MDA (master development agreement), or just been the event, or just been a part of the demo, I would have been stoked, like, really happy. But the fact that today is all three, and it ain't over, it's really amazing."
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Christian Shimabuku can be reached at christian@alohastatedaily.com.
