HONOLULU (KHON2) — The goal – have a venue that people can visit 365 days a year. That’s what developers of the New Aloha Stadium said Thursday, as they gave the public a glimpse of what’s being planned.
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These are the first preliminary conceptual designs for the New Aloha Stadium released by the developer. Of course there’s a stadium there, but it wants the area to be so much more.
“It’s a 98-acre piece of property that was formally just used as a stadium,” said Stanford Carr, Aloha Halawa District Partners. “What we’re transforming that 98 acres is into a 21st century urban community with a lot of amenities, open space, park both passive and active.”
The Aloha Halawa District Partners is the new stadium’s developer. In its presentation to the Stadium Authority, the group talked about the community missing a gathering place. So the New Aloha Stadium would be a place to live, work, play, thrive and learn.
“That’s what we’re trying to focus on – have this be a gathering place for the community not necessarily focus on tourism whatever, but to present Hawaii to its own people,” said Dick Riegels, Aloha Halawa District Partners.
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“We’re really excited because it really falls in line to what we had envisioned for the community, what the community had been saying back to us, and so you know, Stanford and his team are very much in tune with where we believe we need to be going and so it was a very exciting day for us,” said Brennan Morioka, Stadium Authority Chair.
The plan is to house the Hawaii Sports Hall of Fame here. Developers are also talking to the Polynesian Voyaging Society and Bishop Musuem to possibly have exhibits here.
“We gotta do this right,” said Carr. “We’re looking at this long term, not for short term gains. Society is gonna have to live with this for the next 100 years. I wanna be sure we’re autographing our work and community and society will be praising us for what we’re doing here.”
The Stadium Authority says it did not want to demolish the old stadium yet because developers will look at reusing some parts for the new construction.
Up next – the developer will have community meetings to get more input on design. And officials say everything is still on schedule.
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“So right now, we’re still on track to execute a contract by June and then hit the University of Hawaii versus Kansas State in fall of 2028,” said Morioka.
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