HĀLAWA — More signs of progress toward a New Aloha Stadium were visible on Thursday morning, as the Stadium Authority convened for its monthly meeting in its new temporary offices in the facility's lower Hālawa lot.
Just nine days have passed since a blessing was held for the new offices in Hālawa, which was paired with the first visible piece of outward demolishment of the old stadium.
Aloha Stadium interim manager Michael Yadao gave a handful of updates on Thursday, including a handful of notes about the stadium's dismantling ahead of its targeted completion of March 2029. Aloha Hālawa District Partners, the developer of the new stadium and surrounding district, disconnected power to the stadium on Monday. Yadao also said that active demolition and dismantling of the stadium should be visible at street level by some point in March.
The New Aloha Stadium and Entertainment District (NASED) and its contracted developer, Aloha Hālawa District Partners (AHDP) have continued to proceed with the new stadium despite multiple key agreements not yet signed as of Thursday morning. Yadao shared at both Feb. 17's blessing and Thursday morning that the two parties have agreed in principle on a master development agreement (MDA), but legal teams on each side are continuing to parse the details. Parties are also hopeful that the remaining Reciprocal Easement Agreement (REA) and intertwining Reciprocal Easement Shared Infrastructure Agreement (RESIA) can be signed in March.
Thursday's meeting was also the first for Walter Thoemmes as the Stadium Authority's new chair. Thoemmes (rhymes with famous) assumed the role after former chair Eric Fujimoto announced he was stepping down in January's meeting.
"Probably just being a lot closer to the actual discussions and negotiations versus having it reported to me, being actually more involved sitting in the meetings with Stanford (Carr), with our legal team and consulting," said Thoemmes when asked about his new role with the Stadium Authority. He was previously a regular attendee as board member. "It gives me the opportunity to be a little closer to the action, and then I can share in more real time kind of what I think about it. (NASED and AHDP) all combine to sign very complex agreements, but each individual piece needs to just be assessed and agreed upon.
"It's like building a house of bricks, one brick at a time, and you kind of get over each one, and you understand what the counterparty is needing and what the state needs, and come to an agreement, and then get to the next one. I'm happy with the progress that I've seen."
Thoemmes' new role with the Stadium Authority comes during a whirlwind in his professional life. On March 3, he'll begin as the new president and CEO of YMCA Honolulu. He was previously with Kamehameha Schools for over 30 years, most recently as the managing director of the Kamehameha Schools commercial real estate division.
"It's a little stressful," Thoemmes says of balancing his two title changes. "I celebrated 30 years at Kamehameha Schools, worked on a lot of great projects, built campuses, commercial projects, but 'the Y' is also really close to me, as I grew up there. They actually have some development projects that they're planning with a new Nu‘uanu Branch and other real estate aspects."
With his decades of experience in the field, Thoemmes remains optimistic about the new stadium's spring 2029 deadline. He also shared excitement about the stadium's surrounding entertainment district.
"I've worked on much more compressed timelines than this. I do think the critical path that you're seeing, which is demoing a stadium, getting the schematic designs going, those things are not being held back by the current negotiations," Thoemmes said. "I understand from Stanford and team, they're really busy working on it. So, if we were stuck and not ready to demo a stadium or to work on designs, then I'd be worried. But given the fact I know those things are happening, I feel pretty good."
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Christian Shimabuku can be reached at christian@alohastatedaily.com.
