1 contender remains to develop new stadium

The loss of one of the two master-developer candidates is not expected to further delay construction of the New Aloha Stadium Entertainment District, state and University of Hawaii officials insisted.

On Friday, the state announced that Waiola Development Partners has dropped out of consideration, leaving Aloha Halawa District Partners as the lone finalist to build a replacement for Aloha Stadium.

The 48-year-old facility, which had served as the home venue for the University of Hawaii football team, was condemned for spectator-attended events in December 2020 because of structural deficiencies.

In a statement circulated to the media, Stadium Authority Chair Brennon Morioka wrote that the request for proposal was “designed to accommodate the possibility of having only one offeror, and this withdrawal will not affect the ongoing RFP process. We are on track to meet all of the RFP milestones, and we look forward to welcoming UH football and the community back to Aloha Stadium in 2028.”

The Rainbow Warriors are scheduled to host Kansas on Aug. 26, 2028.

According to the timeline, the state Department of Accounting and General Serv ­ices and the Aloha Stadium Authority were to choose between Waiola Development Partners and Aloha District Partners this summer. After that, there is a nine-month window for the selected offer or to reach an agreement on a contract to raze Aloha Stadium and build a replacement. If an agreement is reached, the project could begin next summer.

“It sounds like they had two bidders, and now they have one, ” UH athletic director Craig Angelos said. “Hopefully, they’ll start negotiating with that one whenever they get to that point. Then they’ll have the nine-month process of trying to figure it out. Hopefully, they can get to a point where they finalize a contract. I feel very confident at that point, I’m told, once they get a contract (and ) both parties know what the financial commitments are … that they’ll start working on it immediately.”

The state is supposed to provide $400 million toward the razing and construction segments. The developer would have to cover the remaining costs. The developer also would be in charge of building affordable housing and retail space for the areas surrounding the new stadium. There is no time table for construction other than the new stadium.

“If they come to a point of a contract, then it sounds like we’re on our way, ” Angelos said.

Aloha Halawa District Partners is a consortium comprising :—Development Ventures Group Inc., Stanford Carr Development LLC, Ameresco Inc., and Aloha Stadium Community Development LLC as the lead equity members—RMA Architects, Populous, SB Architects, Henning Larsen, Alakea Design Group and WCIT Architects as the design team—Hawaiian Dredging Construction Co. and AECOM Hunt as the construction team—Castle & Cooke Hawaii and Wilson Okamoto Corp. as other team members With Aloha Stadium’s closure to spectator-attended events, the Warriors have played their home football games at the on-campus Ching Complex for the past three seasons. Ching was retrofitted to 9, 300 seats in 2021, then expanded to 15, 300 seats in 2022.

Last December, the NCAA dropped the requirement that a team must average at least 15, 000 in attendance to maintain Football Bowl Subdivision status. The FBS, previously known as Division I-A, is the highest level for NCAA football. Angelos said UH has met the requirement of providing fully funded scholarships.

“From a financial standpoint, we’re clearly there with our scholarships and other financial commitments, ” Angelos said.