Hawaii edges closer to new Aloha Stadium with demolition permit application

‘AIEA — The dotted line is still without a signature, but construction of the New Aloha Stadium Entertainment District in Hawai’i is starting to become a reality.

Aloha Halawa District Partners still remains in a negotiation period with the state as the “preferred offeror” to be the master developer of the NASED project, but displayed commitment to the project by applying for a demolition permit on May 23 to tear down the current, defunct structure.

Stadium Authority chair Brennon Morioka said the application for the demolition permit was a “significant milestone” for a stadium that is expected to be ready in time for the University of Hawai’i Rainbow Warriors football team’s 2028 season-opener against Kansas on Aug. 26, 2028.

“It is really the first tangible or visible thing that people are going to be able to see,” Morioka said. “I know people have been frustrated because they don’t see the progress because procurement is really something that you don’t see what’s going on. I will say there has been a lot of activity in a lot of the negotiations going on, but this was huge.”

The demolition process is expected to start in August and take about 10 months before the site is ready for vertical construction in the summer of 2026.

While the permit application gives reason to be optimistic, AHDP and the state still needs to agree to the execution of a full contract agreement. The NASED project does have a self-imposed deadline of June 30 for full agreement, but interim stadium manager Chris Sadayasu said in the May 29 Stadium Authority board meeting that the negotiations “might slip” past the deadline.

The stadium project is still “on track” however, Sadayasu said. He noted that there is excitement “about the progression and developers are doing a great job doing their planning, their scheduling, looking at design concepts, taking that time.”

Sadayasu added that they are meeting weekly with a “all-hands meeting every other week with attorneys involved to go over the project document, so that’s moving forward as planned.”

There are four major components that must be agreed upon by the state and AHDP: the execution of a master developmental agreement for the whole 98-acre, mixed-use site that includes the new stadium and surrounding district, a stadium development/operations agreement, a lease for the parcel of land and a reciprocal easement agreement, which Sadayasu says will serve as a contract performance report (CPR) “for the project that everybody will be subject to as the properties are developed.”

One question that was brought up by Stadium Authority board members at the meeting was the method of demolition for the existing stadium.

The Stadium Authority board meets every month in one of the conference rooms beneath the current Aloha Stadium structure.

Morioka, who is the Dean for the College of Engineering at UH, said that implosion would not happen and that the current stadium will go through a more traditional dismantling process where it is cut apart piece by piece.

“They looked at implosion, (but) it was too complicated because it’s primarily a steel structure, implosion while not impossible, was a little more difficult,” said Morioka, who noted that the cost for the demolition process would be closer to $20 million.

He added that there has only been two implosions in the state’s recent history and there was a question of who would have jurisdiction over the permitting process if there was a more explosive demolition.

Skeptics of the project may have wondered why the old stadium couldn’t be demolished as soon as it was no longer in use, but part of the reason is AHDP is still working on its designs and evaluating if there is anything from the existing structure that could be use in the new stadium.

Sadayasu said that AHDP is going to keep the foundations of the north and south end zones of the old stadium and refurbish it, which will save the project around $80-90 million instead of having to build new foundations for those areas.

“They’re understanding of what necessarily needs to be done that they’re in charge of it and we didn’t have some third party that would then mess something up,” Sadayasu said of AHDP being in charge of the demolition process.

While Morioka confessed that the NASED project is one of the more complicated projects that he has been a part of, he remains optimistic that the new stadium can stay on its timeline for use in 2028.

Morioka gave credit to the city and Mayor Rick Blangiardi for doing everything it can to help keep the project on schedule and Gov. Josh Green for his leadership since restarting the project in 2023.

“The one thing I will say about this project, No. 1, it is the only state infrastructure project that is meant to generate revenue for the state,” said Morioka.

“This is a huge asset for both the community to access and also for the state to generate new revenues for our operations, but on top of that, the developer has a lot of incentive to get this project going because they’re going to be spending a lot of money up front. They’re going to need to start recouping money as well, so everybody has kind of been pushing this, pushing this, and that’s been real nice to see that this has actually seen the traction that it has gotten.”