Senate Standing Committee on Housing

Welcome to the joint informational briefing with the Senate Committee on Economic Development and Tourism, Waterland Culture and the Arts and Housing. Today is Wednesday, March 11, 2026. This is our 2:00 pm agenda. We are in Conference Room 224. This informational briefing is being streamed live on YouTube. A Waterland Chair is joining us, Senator Lee.

Soon to be coming in will be Senator Chang as well as our Committee Economic Development, Senator Fukunaga, to the left of me and also joining us is Senator Elefante as well as Senator DeCorte.

We're here today to hold an informational briefing to discuss the lost stadium and the stadium district including infrastructure improvements, housing development, entertainment and district development plans. Please note that there is no testimony will be accepted at this time. First up is our Executive Director Michael Yatao from the Aloha Stadium Authority. Thanks Mike.

Thank you so much, Chair. And thank you, Senators as well. We deeply appreciate this opportunity to be able to present to you.

We kind of went off script to a certain degree in that we wanted to give you just a 50,000 foot overview of kind of the progress we've made in the last three months, just a little bit and then pivot into this discussion on infrastructure and housing, if that's okay.

But I promise to be as short as humanly possible.

Don't worry, we'll remind you if you get over time, we have one pointer there for you. Oh, just point it towards the wall.

The wall and then that'll advance the slide. Yeah, center. I'm sorry, am I doing something wrong? Oh, there you go. Did I go too far? No, I didn't. What I want to tell you is that in mid December we went through a leadership change at the Aloha Stadium Stadium Authority.

And I left the board itself and then jumped on as first interim deputy, then interim manager and then eventually moving towards that Executive Director role. We also had a new board chair. As the dynamic of the stadium evolves, we go away from an operational capacity and more towards a land development and construction place.

And therefore we needed our chair to reflect that. And our current chair, Walter Zamus has 30 years of experience at land management and development at Kamehameha Schools, Bishop Estate, he just recently retired from Kamehameha Schools and is now the President CEO of the YMCA and overseeing their big Wanuai development.

And so we moved away from a financial and contractual and legal expertise and operational capacity and moved towards a land management and construction capacity. We also started the actual dismantling of the stadium.

So in early February, the stadium staff that was located in the bowels of the old Aloha Stadium moved out and moved off site to trailers located on the southern tip. And the dismantling. And we see dismantling rather than demo because demo implies some kind of implosion or explosion. While this is a pulling apart and a pulling away.

The dismantling began in mid February, but in earnest is happening now in March. If you were to take a look at the stadium themselves, you know, Senator Elefante, when you drive home today and you come by the stadium, the four spirals that dealt with parking and flow are being ripped apart and being dismantled and down.

And as we get into mid, we were scheduled for a February, March 17, beginning of the pull away of the bigger pieces of the stadium that might be delayed because of weather. Right. We have to bring some of these excavators and big things down just because we have to worry about safety.

But we intend on moving forward with dismantling in the next few months with an expected end date in November. We also made significant progress on the agreements that govern the stadium and the stadium district build out. And so there are anywhere from five to four contracts that govern the stadium and its district.

Two that are related to the stadium itself, one that enables dismantling, one that enables build. Those are done and executed in September of this past of last year, in the fall of last year. Then there are two, depending, maybe three remaining. We can blur the last two into one, which is why I hesitate.

Of those two, the master development agreement, which then allows us to work with the developer on what specifically will be on site. How you do subleases, how you do minimum rent and things of that nature has been agreed to in a handshake.

But there are some pukas because we have to now complete the ground lease/resi/master deck. And we're currently negotiating that and expect to be done with that by April 1st. And I say that with the developer here saying, please be nice to me in negotiations and we expect to be done with that shortly.

We also want to tell you that we have, from the operational side, returned to allowing for concerts on site. There was a brief period where that was discontinued. That has returned. I think rebel soldiers will be coming in August, Stephen, correct me. And we can help facilitate a lot of these things on site.

We've also done our absolute best to communicate and held several town halls with our swap meet vendors so that they know what their status are and where they'll be. And they've expressed flexibility, understanding that as construction moves that they may have to move at different periods and they have maximum, maximum flexibility there.

We've also done our absolute best in working with Aloha Halawa development partners in ensuring that power remains on site so that we can continue to operate the luas and aircon and things of that nature and some of the security needs for center plate Sodexo. So I will then do this. Okay. Did I hit that right?

No, I didn't. Oh, did I go. I went too far ahead?

No, I think there's an issue.

There's an issue.

Yeah, we had it working.

Oh, that's okay. That's okay. So again, on that 50,000-foot overview in February 17th, we had the official blessing which then culminated. Chris. Senator Lee, please don't look at those pictures. That's a horrible picture of me that my wife and Sam did. And I cringe at it every time I see it.

Anyway, we had a blessing on February 17 which allowed for both our moving away from the stadium side itself into district offices down at the southern tip. And it was the mark of the beginning, beginning of that dismantling period.

So that was the actual first day that dismantlement occurred on the stadium itself, which is the first step in stadium development and then the master development of the overall site. So you can kind of see we can go to the next slide on dismantling. Should I continue to hit this or no?

Yes, you just hit them, you said so you can move to the next one after that. So that was the dismantling itself. And admittedly that day there was very little to dismantle because we were still in that pre construction place.

But if you can look at that circular spire that's completely gone right now and then the one adjacent to it on the Mauka side is also being pulled away and is about 2/3 gone and they're starting to work on the other two.

You might see something, Senator Elefante, as you drive home, but it kind of depends on the weather. Please keep going on some of the technical requirements. This has yet to be fully presented to the board itself for approval and to the Governor's office.

But I do want to tell you that our private sector Aloha Halawa development partner has communicated this publicly. And so we feel comfortable saying it that because of increased access potentially to capital, that they're able to expand the initial proposal on the.

On the size of the stadium itself to 31,000 seats, all individual with 28, hopefully a little bit more in that boxy place. I'll let them kind of talk more about the specifics on the stadium build out so we can go to the next slide. Is it not on the contract overview?

Just like I said, we have the development operation agreement and then we have the initial ground lease. Those are the two documents that govern the stadium build itself. That allowed for dismantling and then that allows for us to then move forward with the building of the stadium.

We have a verbal agreement on the master development agreement which will allow for the build out of the district. What we're currently working on is the infrastructure portion and the ground lease of that master development. So everything that's not the stadium, that ground lease that enables that build is what we're currently working on.

Expect again to be done in that April 1st time period soon, please, next one. We also have, you know, we're pleased that we're moving towards reappointment of these GMs. What we're trying to do at the stadium authority is maximize the capacity of the individual members on the board.

So it was important for me that you see these members, in that we have Lloyd Hisaka on the far left who has over 30, 40 years experience as a referee and in working in an operations capacity at the University of Hawaii.

We have Claire Tomomoto, who I think I've joked with you, Senator should be the mayor of Halawa, Senator Elefante's nodding because she'll be in his office.

We have Joel Kawachi who at Moana Loa shepherded really great CIP projects that Senator Wakai and Senator Kim put into the budget for him to play with, for him to build out of from. He also has an understanding of DOE sports so that we continue to cater to our local kids and that local audience.

And then we have Mikey Imanaka whose financial background with A and B is amazing. And he allows for a financial sense of how we're doing and what we're doing, how we're moving forward. We're proud at the stadium and that we're one of the state entities that makes money.

We make over on average $150,000 a month on swap meet revenue and revenues from the rest of the site we intend on. With the concerts increasing and even making more so that we can pay for at base level our operations. Next slide, please. Now I want to make reference to a new board Member.

As the stadium development is evolving, we're moving away from that operational capacity because our private sector partner takes on that role and we're moving towards that landlord and engagement place. And so Tracey Lester Smith, who has an extensive background in sports law and in sports promotion, working for NASCAR, Bellator MMA Fighting.

She's currently the VP at World Rugby and teaches at the University of Hawaii on sports contracts. Helps us to open those doors and to get us into places where then we can excite activity at the stadium which excites economic activity statewide. So not just within our district, but much broader.

And I wanted to make reference to her because she's a step in that positive direction. Next slide, please. So you've seen the dismantling occur. One of the things that we're doing is with our Aloha Halawa development partners, they take a still photo and they take B roll every day of the stadium dismantling.

So you can see those spirals being pulled apart. You can see that spiral to your. On your far right corner. That spiral to the far right is being pulled apart and it's about 2/3 dismantled as we speak.

The reason that this is important is because we understand that this is a once in a 50 year operation, that the dismantling of the stadium is important to document and it's important to fully take advantage of so that we can market career construction fields to children. And that leads us to the next slide.

So we have an AI character, Senator Chang. Please don't make fun of me. We have an AI character that we've named Al Oha. Aloha. Thank you for laughing, Senator DeCorte. I appreciate that. You all were supposed to laugh. My staff didn't laugh and I'm a little disappointed. But with Al Oha.

So we're in discussions with Keith Hayashi at DOE. We're in discussions with a local celebrity on being able to do the voiceover so that the voice sounds like us.

But what Al Oha will do is we're going to take the B-roll, and we're going to take the photos from the dismantling, and we're going to teach kids about construction. We're going to encourage them to enter construction career fields coming into this school year.

Al Oha, much like Sparky the Fire Plug was for me as a kid in my schools from HFD teaching me about fire safety.

Al Oha will be teaching kids about construction career fields, culminating in a November visit at Construction Career Days, where kids then can come on-site and see and look at the things that Al Oha just taught them about construction. And so that's, that's. So I wanted to. I wanted you guys to know that that's occurring.

I would be remiss if I didn't say that. And my communications person would throw a rock at me if I didn't say that. Al Oha already has a Facebook page, already has an Instagram page. We're doing reels that have the AI voice in it. But Senator Chang, we will get a pidgin English voice in there.

We will get a local voice that sounds local. We're working on it. Give me time. So please feel free to like subscribe and comment on Al Oha if you have the opportunity. Next slide please. Okay, so now we get to some, some of the meat of this.

So Nasset is really two things that become one thing and are fully integrated. We talk about the stadium and the stadium development itself, but we also talk about the master development that governs the rest of the site. This is a location where H1, H2, H3 and rail all converge.

We are across the street from the Arizona Memorial where pre Covid 1.1 to 1.2 million visitors visit without then any retail or any other opportunities afterward. We are fully aware of this.

We are also fully aware of the need for commercial mixed use space and for housing because we know that this is prime land and this is an opportunity to quell some of the housing inventory questions.

We have had multiple studies, including one from RailCo that talks extensively to what infrastructure demands are needed, what is currently existing, and then therefore what kind of housing capacity is appropriate for this site. That number has been set at 4500 and I believe 37. That's a hard number.

And it is really because of the kind of infrastructure we're building, the ways that we connect to the city, the type of mixed use development that we need on the site, and the demands of the stadium. That 4500 is a set and solid number. We also have full commitment from the city itself.

Senator Wakai, Senator Coit, I know that you've heard verbally, but I got to tell you, he even said this morning at a private meeting and he has said publicly repeatedly that the mayor is in full support of the project and is expediting permits as fast as he is possibly capable in order to keep us on time and on budget moving towards that March 2029.

But really so that we can play football in this stadium in that 2029 season so that Timmy Chang and Chris Brown have a place to go bows. Next slide please. And that's what really these slides contain. They contain more of the substance.

I don't want to bore you, but a lot of that 4,500 number comes because of coordination and conversation with both env and the Board of Water Supply so that we're making sure that we can meet the demands of the people on site.

ENV and Board of Water Supply have been explicit that that 4,500 number is the number given what we need for mixed use retail and the stadium itself. And if we keep going, this is my actual testimony that in regards to that, I know that we've had questions from others, so.

So I wanted you to have that on record so that if you needed to refer to something or if you needed the actual details of what study, and if you need copies of that study, we're happy to provide it to the chair.

But I wanted you to just have this on record so that you had this kind of in your back pocket should you be asked. Next slide please. And the next slide. So this slide was specifically developed to give us an understanding and to give EMV and the Board of Water Supply and everybody an understanding.

The community at large as well a few years back of what 10,000 units on site would look like, how it would choke out the mixed use retail and what it would actually look like on site.

The community has expressed to us through Members on the board, through Countless Neighborhood Board meetings and through town halls that this is not the direction that they want to move. The next slide contains what it would look like at 20,000 units.

It would completely choke out mixed use retail and it would turn this into block after block of tower. It would choke out parking and it would place demands on EMV and Board of Water Supply that they're saying they simply can't meet. It would also increase our infrastructure spending dramatically.

And then lastly, the community has said explicitly that this is not the direction that they want to move in. That they want to move in what we've seen as that 4,500 number with mixed use retail and a vibrant stadium with green space. And that ends my testimony. Senator, I'm open to questions or if you want me to.

What we're going to do, we're going to do all the presenters first and then we'll just do the question.

Thank you, Senator, thank you for the opportunity.

Thanks, Mike. Next up, Housing Development, please. Craig, we're doing Craig first. Oh, are we doing housing with you? No, sorry Craig. Yeah.

Good afternoon.

Craig, if you can let keep your presentation to about 10 minutes. I want to give the Committee an opportunity to ask question.

Yeah, could be even shorter. Okay. Better yet, so you have my comments with you. I tried to limit my comments to the idea of HCDA as a zoning and regulatory agency for the stadium development district. That's essentially what Senate Bill 2599, Part 1 provides for.

So if the Bill becomes law, we certainly willing to help Senators and help with being the zoning and regulatory agency if the Bill passes and we are, we're going to just need some time to promulgate rules, go through the same kind of community engagement that State inventory went through to come up with a plan and rules to, to for the, for the district.

And, and that's necessary if we're to be the zoning and regulatory agency for the district and Supersede City entitlements. And we just need that time, Senator for to do all that if we're going to take that role on and happy to do it. It's just going to take, take a little bit of time. Thank you. Thank you.

Yeah, sorry I actually skipped over Stanford, but thank you, Stanford. If you can come up please. On behalf of.

Thank you Chair. I have a cold so my voice is very hoarse. I'd like to bring up Kaloa Robinson who's working with me on this project as a project manager. We put together a PowerPoint presentation. Go ahead.

Was there, there was a clicker. The clicker is going to be important for this one.

Excellent. Good afternoon Senators. Kaloa Robinson with Aloha Halawa District Partners understand for car development shop, 4 things to brief you guys on. First is a guide through the overall district to give you guys a sense of what we're trying to accomplish with the site writ large.

Number two is a special sneak peek updated as of this morning on where we are with redesigning the new Aloha Stadium. Third is to give you an insight as to the challenges that we're facing with the, with the overall district infrastructure for the surrounding real estate.

And then for a brief discussion on density and how we came to the quantity of units that we're proposing, residential units that we're proposing for the site. So this will be a, this will be a picture journey starting from 10,000 square 10,000ft in the air.

Our overall district, what we're proposing is a mixed use, so office, ground floor, retail, residential and for the first time in our history, sports and entertainment all in one place. We say that this is a place where you can live, work, play, thrive, and learn.

And so I'm going to guide you on a journey through our district starting from the Halawa Skyline Station. So as you disembark the Halawa Skyline, you enter a retail promenade where we'll have community, artistic features, ways to engage folks as soon as they disembark, such as fountains, other engaging amenities.

The idea is that as soon as you arrive, you feel it, there's a sense of arrival. As soon as you get off, you feel like you've arrived at the new Aloha Stadium entertainment district. As you navigate from the Skyline Station and make your way toward the stadium, along the way, you'll pass our cultural Learning Center.

This structure we envision hosting things like our Hawaii Music Hall of Fame or potentially a Polynesian Voyagers exhibit, among a few other opportunities. We think this site, in particular, is one of the best places to really showcase a bunch of Hawaii's rich history.

Just before you cross the street, you'll enter a promenade where we'll have opportunities for you to get a drink at the bar, go get a poke bowl, get some food, have some lunch, do some retail shopping.

We think as you move from the Skyline Station and make your way toward the stadium, there will be a lot of opportunities to host local vendors with a wide diversity and spectrum of all different types of opportunities.

Along the way, you'll pass through our neighborhood and that really is at the end of the day, what we're trying to build, if not a zip code in itself than a whole neighborhood.

A place where it's largely walkable, where the streets are activated, where they're clean, they're wide, it's pedestrian friendly and it's fit for all ages and lifestyles.

And before you get to the entree, which is the stadium, you may decide you want to take a walk in one of our passive or bring a football and throw it around in one of our active parks.

We intend to have an array of different amenities that won't cost you anything but ways to activate and get people excited, whether there's a game that day, a concert, or you're just there to get coffee with a friend. So then you get to your entree and you're greeted with our pre and post game entertainment district.

We call this. The code name for it is Aloha Live. This is an integrated concert venue. And when I say integrated, I mean integrated into the stadium. So on the right hand side of the photo is actually the stadium itself.

You're looking at the back of the west stands and the idea is that pre-game, this is where you come to hang out with your friends, get another drink, maybe there's someone playing music on stage. And as you navigate underneath the Aloha Live sign, that's where the 50-yard line is. For the, for the stadium.

This is a concept that we're borrowing from several places on the mainland that are extremely successful. I think one of my favorites is Texas Live. They've done it really well there. Another. Another great place to. Another great example of it was at the Battery where Truist Park is in Atlanta.

Another view as you navigate up to the second story of live. And from here you can. You can't see it from here, but you can actually. To your back is the upper concourse, so you'll be able to see the game.

And then if you go to the backside, see whatever else is going on in live, wave to your friends, watch the rest of the concert. So once you're in live, we can move on to number two, which is an update on the stadium.

Once you've passed through live and you enter the stadium, you're immediately looking at the 50-yard line and the stadium that we're designing. What was core to us was to build a stadium that Hawaii could be proud of, to build a stadium that was worth building, not to do anything less. And this project needs flexibility.

It needs different routes, it needs different opportunities. The future is a long time. There's a lot of different things that can happen. And we want to plan for a likely scenario and an aspirational scenario, which is why we're not only designing a 31,000-seat stadium, but we're also planning to expand the north.

The north on the right hand side and the south on the left hand side. Additional seating to bring that count up to 40,000 plus or minus seats. We call the former the base and we call the latter the wave because it's intended to look like a wave closing out on the opposing team.

So this is another perspective rendering looking from the south. So we're probably right above the existing Satoru Abe volcano. You're looking north. Pearl Harbor is on your left-hand side. Koolau Mountains are on your right. Again, the base case. And with the wave to bring it up to 40,000 seats.

We spent the last year traveling to just about every college and professional stadium that we thought we could borrow something useful from. And our friends in Corvallis have something they call Beaver Street. Beaver street, they call it Beaver Street. And it's this open. It's this concourse that's connected to the rest of the bowl.

And it's difficult to appreciate in the wire frame. So for the first time, you guys get to see what it might look like if it's real and fully activated. On what we hope is the first fall game for UH, Moving now to the other side of the stadium.

This is a view from the east stands and you can see the west stands in the foreground. And another view if we were to add again the 40,000 seat wave and what it could look like three years from now when it gets built.

This is a view from what we call the Puka Lounge or an area in the south end zone that we're going to open up and turn into a club. It was very important to us that when people come to Aloha Stadium, it wasn't just about watching the game.

It was who you were with when you were watching the game. It was who was around you and what were you doing. So it was important for us to cultivate a myriad of experiences where people could not only see what's going on in the field, but also talk story and enjoy the company they're with.

The Puka Lounge, where we open up a portion of the south end zone and turn it into a separate area. Flat, high top chairs. This is another place where people can congregate. We have several opportunities, several clubs just like this throughout the stadium that are all designed for different demographics, different price points.

And the idea is to be as inclusive and facilitating of camaraderie as possible. And the Puka Club connects to the Hawaii Sports hall of Fame that we're going to implement and bring or bring back actually into the south end zone.

And here's what it could look like with the additional seats on the north end and what opening game day could look like. Another perspective rendering of what opening game day could look like. If you can't tell from the photos, our team is extremely excited about the potential here.

It's difficult to appreciate how much value the expertise in our design team brings when we're only looking at wireframes. When we saw these renderings this morning, we thought it was very important for our legislative body to start to get a taste of, of what we're planning.

So very quickly I want to run through how we plan to segregate the different levels. We have four main levels, starting with the main concourse. So as you enter from live, that is where the, where the green meets the white. That is the main concourse. It's a direct transition from live into the bowl.

And then you go up one more level and that's where you have the club and some suites. You go up one more level, you have additional suites. And then the level up above there is the upper concourse. And that upper concourse then leads to the rest of the bowl.

We're doing something interesting on the field level, something that we borrowed from our friends at Canvas Stadium in Fort Collins. It's called the Field Club. And this is where. This is the lower level. It looks to be underground, but it's really at the same level as the pitch.

And this is an on grade club where folks can be right in the mix of it. We envision people who are using this club to be out on the lanai, out on the patio, engaging with the team, seeing and hearing, probably smelling too, to be very involved in the game. And this is what it might look like.

Now from the 50 yard line. One of the benefits to doing this amphitheater build out, as opposed to a large, almost 200 foot west stand with a symmetrical 200 foot east stand, is we have some of the most beautiful mountains in the world right behind us.

And the more we studied how to redevelop the site, the more of a shame it seemed to block that view. So

one of the main reasons for not having a symmetrical stadium on the west and the east is so that there is a partially unobstructed view from the west stands from the home team side where all the cameras are going to be facing directly toward the Koola Mountain range.

Another opportunity to host a different level of club and camaraderie experience. This is a view from the club level. This is a little bit higher end price point. We see clubs like this in basically every professional stadium and most collegiate stadiums across the country.

And once again, it's difficult to imagine how this could be activated until you see a photorealistic rendering of it. Truthfully, as soon as I saw this, this felt exactly what it kind of feels like to be at the TC Ching right now.

This is the kind of experience we want to foster with these clubs and with these lounges is people together, not just watching the game, but watching each other. And one more activation from the wireframe. So this is the entire west stands.

You can see the club lounge area in the middle, the upper General admission above and then the lower bowl with the field club just to the right of the photo. And one more time, a closer look at our club space and our lounges and suites and what that could look like a few years from now.

And we're not just trying to create clubs and lounges. We're trying to create open space that is activatable by anybody that's there. You don't have to spend a ton of money to get into a club lounge to have an area where you can hang out with your friends or enjoy your company.

We're creating these integrated concourses so that the concourse is not hidden in the back behind the seating. It's right there in front.

If you leave your seat to go get a refreshment before you come back, or if you want to eat before you go back to your seat, you can enjoy your sandwich or any, any other variety of food on some of our standing room or our high tops on the upper concourse.

So that is an update on where we are with the schematic design of the stadium itself. And while the pictures are wonderful and fun to look at, the truth is that we have some steep obstacles to overcome, not the least of which is the infrastructure.

And so with respect to the surrounding, the surrounding real estate, the biggest challenge is how do we turn what we call pasta or spaghetti, because that's what it looks like. How do we turn that into something that is, that will fit into our roads, that's dedicable to the city? This challenge is ongoing. It.

It is something we work on every week. Every week I'm on a phone call with three or four different engineers, our architects from Populous, and we run through every utility company, every single line categorized from electrical to water to sewer to fuel pipelines.

We run through every single one to make sure that nothing falls through the cracks, to make sure that we're communicating with the owner of those lines and to resolve what we're calling the easement problem. Because there are 88 different encumbrances on this site. It's five tmks.

There's a total of 88 encumbrances, some of which go back to before World War II. And going through each one of those is necessary and onerous. But the way we approach it is little by little, every day try to chip away.

Our legal counsel has recommended for the easements outside of the Department of Defense or the Navy is that we condemn the easements as the most expeditious way to clear the way. This is a culmination of 80 plus years of infrastructure and utilities being installed on the site.

These utilities were laid in without any conceivable idea that this would one day be transformed into a master planned urban district.

So when they laid the utilities and they did without any regard to the future, these are live utilities, live fuel lines, water lines, sewer lines, communication lines that need to be redirected and we need to make the connection points because they need to continue to serve the community, both Pearl Harbor, Hickam Base as well as West Oahu Central and West Oahu.

So it's an insurmountable task ahead of us. I wish we had the chance to work on this five years ago so that we could actually start building and redirecting the infrastructure now and having to figure this out now.

Just want everybody to realize the challenges we have because it looks like a big vast open parking lot, but there's a lot of it under there and we don't know what depth the utilities are until we start digging.

And in our experience, you know, in Kakaako where we develop a number of projects, the as built by the city did not accurately reflect what was underground. So we've had to make provisions to redirect sewer lines or drainage lines in reaction to the depths. There's no connection point, it doesn't exist. So just wanted to share that.

Go ahead.

Yeah, thanks dad. Briefly. Well, we think this is a 30 ish plus or minus year project. Our, our timeline to progress starts with the yellow. Our first and foremost priority is to get the stadium built as quickly as humanly possible, followed shortly by the amenities surrounding the rail station.

So what we call our initial phase or our phase one is everything you see in yellow. From there we're attacking the green blocks and then the surrounding purple blocks and subsequently making our way through south down or Mauka across the stream. Again, 30ish year project, lots of work to do and we're just getting started.

So briefly on this discussion of density, I want to highlight a few things for the Senators in the room so you guys can understand how we came to the 4 to 4500 unit range. Master planning is as much an art as it is a science. There's often not one right answer. There's usually seven or eight.

But as we utilize our iterative tools to find problems here and solutions there that inform each other, we kind of kept coming to this range. So first and foremost, existing height limitations make developing more the then a few 3ish thousand units fairly challenging. We envision we'll have to re entitle the entire site to accommodate our height limits.

What you're looking at on screen is an excerpt from the state EIS for this project. And you can see that majority of the developable land is actually capped at the 150 foot height limit. In red, where the Hart station is, is a 250 foot height limit.

And even that wouldn't be enough to achieve 3,000 units, let alone four. And so let me give you guys a sense of scale about what we're proposing to build. And what you're looking at are red lines to kind of graphically show you where those height limits are.

You can see at the 250 foot level, which is the highest level I have marked here, even that would, would shave the top off of several buildings. And as a reminder on the other side of Salt Lake Boulevard, so on the top of the page, that height limit is actually not 250ft, it's 150ft.

The only 250 foot height limit we have currently entitled is on the right hand side of the photo where the heart station is. So we have an entitlement hurdle we have to overcome. And for the committees to get a sense of scale, this is roughly 2000 units plus or minus. Overall, our master plan envisions 4250.

So this is roughly half of all the residential units we think will build on the entire site. And I originally brought this slide up because it's a more granular approach to how we plan to prioritize the electrical energization. Every there's a, there's a problem with every utility.

There's a capacity issue, there's a transmission issue, there's a timing issue. There's something with every single utility. We made this for the folks at HECO so we, they could understand how our loads would come online.

But one important infrastructure component that's unique to the others because it has to be resolved on site is that HECO probably doesn't have sufficient capacity for much else other than the stadium and our live, which means that we'll have to build another substation. And where that substation goes, and it's probably not even just one, it's probably two.

And where that substation goes is a little bit up in the air. But you can see in the bottom right corner of the site a footprint of approximately how big substation lot would have to be. Now because this particular utility has to be solved on site, that means you're taking land away from anything else.

And ostensibly the more electrical you need, the bigger the substation. Meaning the less developable land you have. And so last but not least, we wanted the Senators to get a sense of where our plans are versus what's currently entitled.

So for the next few slides, it's set up to visually show you the difference between the state eis, which is in orange, and the AHDP master plan, which is in green. And in each case we're already significantly, almost double in most cases, pushing the envelope of what's currently entitled.

So starting with apartments between phase one and full build out, for us it's a little under 1,000 units in phase one for rental apartments, a little more than 2,000 at full build out, compared to 325 and 841 for the state respectively, and a similar ratio for condos.

We're very much still in the planning stages of how this will work out. You can almost be certain that whatever it is, it won't be these numbers that are here on the screen. But nevertheless, for condos, it's roughly the ratio between condos and rentals. Right now it kind of sits at about one to one.

So 2,000 condos, plus or minus 2,000 residential. And then for hotel keys, we envision at total build out about a little over 900 hotel keys, maybe a little bit more if the tourism demand ends up being there. And the state EIS envisioned less than that, about 600.

And so to put it all together, for total residential units, we plan to do more than double what the current EIS allows for.

And so putting all of those different things together, the massing community needs, the infrastructure requirements, and whether or not the market can absorb a certain quantity of units, we balance all of those and push in the envelope of what's currently entitled. We use all of those tools in the box to come to this 4250 number.

Again, Master planning is as much art as it is science. But the important component of it is that it's not one thing, it's all of them. That concludes all of the information we wanted to present you guys with on behalf of Stanford and the rest of our team at the stadium. Thank you for the time.

No, thank you guys for the presentation. We appreciate it. So of course I'm gonna go over towards the chairs. Any questions? Committee, any questions?

Senator Inouye, thank you, thank you chairs, and thanks for this presentation. Well, first off, and I'm sorry I was late, what are we looking at the sitting capacity again? Has it changed for the stadium?

Yes, it has changed.

So it's now down to what, up or up did it go up to what?

Yeah, I'm glad you asked. We are currently planning what we call the base Stadium for 31,000 plus or minus seats. And that's important. The number of seats is a range because exactly what kinds of seats those are may mean that there's more or less seats.

And I understand that the previous our earlier Wham hearings, we talked about the highest capacity and then it dropped to 23,000 or something like that. I'm glad it's up. However, can you put the picture that you had with the view, the open space?

And just to tell you, I'm a sports person, very active, I've been all over stadiums in our country, so I'm very familiar with stadiums now. It's kind of unfortunate that when you're at an event, who cares? The local people, who cares about looking at the view, they're looking at the capacity.

I've been to as many Pro Bowls past in this event and other events. However, 31, and I was one of those, like my colleagues were pretty upset when we dropped numbers on the seating capacity.

So when you think about it, if you're an event and it's a sellout, Bruno Mars comes, whoever that is, Good games are pro football, whatever.

Who cares about the view for those that are already there for the, for the local people who wants to at least come to Oahu and attend an event which is the only one here in our state. And we're good supporters, many, many of our population are.

Now when you look at it again, like I say, we hope that it's programmed enough or designed enough in the event that it seems like people want to come, you can increase the capacity that you can then close off that viewpoint. You understand what I'm saying?

So the question would be, can you increase that? If it was to close off with the capad, you have the potential to increase the capacity of seats on either side. I know you guys did the other side where they showed up.

Yeah, we, we're making provisions to accommodate that with the increase on the north and south end zones. And as you know that we are preserving the existing cast in place concrete structures which will save us $90 million.

The if we were to plan for a future second tier bowl on the east end, we would have to make structural provisions for the foundations to accommodate that to hold that additional weight.

But there's no thought about doing that now then in your planning stages. I mean, I'm glad it's. We can discuss it, but in the event that you need to revise or Whatever, Yeah.

So when you take a look at what we have here with the second tier bowl on the north and south end zones and with the different types of seatings and terraces that we have throughout the stadium and you're looking at over 40,000 seat capacity with respect to seating and standing opportunities with high top chairs and tables and so forth.

We have a variety of seating experiences. Load lounges, high top chairs, high back lounge chairs with cup holders and your standard type of.

Have you folks been to, to a Petco park in San Diego as well?

Yes, yes, we, we, we visited 13 cities and a number that, that's one

of the latest in, in the West Coast.

Sure. So when we, we, we visited Petco, we took a red eye, went through Petco in the morning as well as a little baseball park next to it, walked around the Gaslamp district because I haven't been there in a number of years to see how that they did a good job. Correct.

And then we went to Snapdragon Stadium, spent three hours at Snapdragon and then jumped on a plane and went to Eugene, Oregon to go visit Corvallis the next morning.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you. Senator Kim.

Thank you, thank you for the presentation. Having been to a number of the stadiums myself, I can see areas in which is similar, of course Snapdragon, but even Minneapolis and the bottom level where the players actually come and run through, through the, where the people are sitting and stuff like that. I mean, very, very innovative and interesting.

So the seating that I can see from the renditions, the bench seating are all in that major area. And the club seating is more of us.

Right now we have all chair seating.

Right. But there's no bench.

Oh, there's no bench. It looks like.

No bench.

Can we, can we move back?

It looked like it was bench seating.

And you know, since it flew all the way from the rest course, we've been having design charrettes. See, it looks okay.

It looks like bench seating with little, little square, square cushions.

There'll be individual seats. Okay. No, that's fine. We'll cup holders. It just looked like that it was still bench seating with little cushions, but. And then when you show the clock,

it's just a limitation of the wireframe.

That's fine. Yeah. I just wanted to double check. So that those seatings is. What we've seen is pretty much the 31,000.

Correct.

Yeah.

Okay.

Also you folks showed when you first come in now, is that a portion where you're welcoming it from the rail? That, that area that you're going to go. Is that where we're going to see. It's a promenade. Yeah. Is that the first phase included?

Can you go back to that map with the green and the orange and the yellow?

Let's go to the site plan towards the end. So, you know, when you go to Disneyland, you park in the park construction. You go through Downtown Disney before you decide, am I going to go right to California Adventure or am I going to go left to.

Yeah, no, that was the phasing in one where you show the yellow and the red and. Yes.

It's going to change, then it's going to change back.

So that yellow on the left hand on the. Yeah, right there.

Right. We're going to shut down Salt Lake right here. This is the heart station site's going to become contiguous with the stadium site. We're working with -

So that's where you're going to be the welcoming. It's going to be one of the first things built with the stadium.

Yeah. So, that first rendering you saw on the proven the fountain. That is the rendering is right here.

Okay. And that's where the cultural center and stuff is?

Cultural center is right here.

Oh, it's going to be - okay. So, that's also going to be in the first phase.

Correct. We're trying to activate. This is like the village.

Right. And the cost for that is, that's going to be within the 350 million that we are located.

This is so one of the things we worked on last year, if you remember, HB 1007, which came back. 252 authorizing HCDA bond authority and I recall was up to $180 million. Because that's what about phase one infrastructure is going to cost to authorize HCBA to issue 180 million in tax exempt bonds.

Very similar to a community facilities district bond financing, like creating the district. So we still have - this property has the height limitations. The council purposely imposed those height limitations because they didn't see any master plan of this district.

They wanted to force whoever was the awarded developer to come back to the council to seek the entitlements and approvals.

Okay. So the 180 million pays for what? All the infrastructure?

Utility, relocation, and phase one infrastructure installation.

So, the actual stadium and all the yellow; what is that right now?

Stadium alone is 650 million.

So, the stadium alone is 650? That does not include the yellow below it and the yellow by the rail; that's going to be how much?

That's - we're looking at about $180 million in infrastructure relocation and new infrastructure, so that we can build the capacity.

Okay, so 650 plus 180. So, about 800 million right now. Just, and that'll be built out on all the yellow area built out or only the infrastructure on some of them?

Built out over incrementally as the market will absorb it. We have ground floor commercial and residential rental or condos up above.

Okay. But in conjunction to stadium, so the stadium is going to be ready when?

Right now, the schedule is looking at August of 2029.

Okay. At that time.

Without any slippage, everything needs to be done.

At 2029, all the things in yellow will be built out?

No, no, just the stadium.

So, you're not going to have the welcome.

And we want to get the Aloha Life because it's integrated.

That's it?

We have all this utility relocation that needs to happen first and the installation of the new infrastructure within the roadway, by the ways. Then we can go build.

I do not understand.

So you're not going to have?

This one does it better to answer the senator's question. This has the dates on it.

So, you're not going to have the welcoming off of the rail the same time that the stadium is ready?

On the hard site I, I can - that's a low hanging fruit. I can build a limited services hotel and a rental. This is, this is what we're looking at in phase one. So that photo, we saw the promenade, was taken from here.

Okay. I'm just trying to get a sense of what we get when we start building because it's not clear.

The goal is to have these subject to be getting that sewer capacity worked out and the power capacity.

And water capacity.

And water capacity. Right now, the priority is the stadium.

Right. And the rail is right?

Rails...skyline's right here: disembark.

Because you got a long way to go from the skyline.

And we're gonna close Salt Lake Boulevard right here. We're gonna turn Salt Lake off of camp or maybe a highway into a two way street.

Okay. Two, two more things if I may? So, you have the current stadium mall area. Right. Where is that? How is that, Is that going to be integrated into the whole project?

That's located right here.

So, that's not even totally.

Yeah. Okay, and so I know this is going to be down the road, but on that cultural portion? You know, we have been for a long time running the Hawaiian Music Dance Museum. Hopefully you guys will consider putting that in there.

So couple things we see cultural. That's why I said live, work, play, learn and thrive. Food is going to be a very important part of this community too, for people of this. I mean, my wife and I, we travel to go eat, you know? I mean, it's an important part of your travels.

Bishop Museum as well as the state archives has a lot of history and artifacts of how Hawaii came to be, how we immigrated and the social, you know, diverse fabric of community that we have here. Food, of which, is a very important part. We want to showcase that and Bishop Museum has a lot of the -

But we don't have Music and Dance Museum, which is the heart of the Hawaiian culture.

Separately, we want to create the Hawaiian Music Hall of Fame.

Well, it's not just a hall of fame though. I think we want to have a historic music and dance because that is the soul of the Hawaiian people.

Mele is important.

Yeah. And not just a hall of fame.

But you're preaching to the choir. Okay.

I just hope that that's going to be part of it.

I visited the the OHA Center that has some of that: he Hall of Famers this past year. I went to the 2025 Recipient Hall of Fame. I've had discussions with Bobby Hall, George Poole, and Randy Fujiki, who's been advocating for this for some time. People are all excited about it.

You know, we have our own category, but we don't have a center to showcase and be an inspiration for the future generations.

I just hope it's just not the hall of fame.

But I've been meaning to come talk to you because I know that's an important component. There have been past discussions and efforts to place it at the convention center.

But it also fits in with this whole entertainment.

Yes, it's perfect. It's like everything is culminating. That should be here.

It's not part of the first phase, but -

It's a priority.

Before we jump on, I just wanted to go back real quickly. You know the top section where you coming in from the Halawa station?

Yes.

What does it look like? Because I know you talked about condemning with all the infrastructure that is underneath. How much of condemning of infrastructure pipeling stuff is just in that section? Because I believe that's not in the cost of...

Yeah, right. Next one. Yep. There you go. All right.

The part the power line is not on here, right?

No, it's not.

It's the fuel line you're talking about.

It's one of them. We found more utilities as time went by. So, one of the things was we asked for a public title report. There was no title report. So when it was ordered on July 19, 2024, 12 days before we submitted the RFP, there was 80. It was 44 pages with 88 encumbrances.

But there was no, also no survey that correlates with that report. We just got that completed a few months ago. It took months to do because it's complicated. What do we spent on that? Three or four hundred grand. So, that helps us look for where are things, like hazardous.

But what you see here is a roadway system superimposed on a cycle. And all of these lines here are what we need to relocate. Like this particular line here, that's a sewer county sewer forest. We've got to relocate that into Salt Lake Boulevard. So, you, when we say spaghetti, it's like grabbing a handful of spaghetti.

And Lori, Kai, and Keena can attest to that along Dillingham Boulevard. You know, we've got the same issues here.

Okay, thank you. Sorry.

So, we're still filtering through, we're still investigating. It's a lot of work, but it needs to be done.

Let me go to Chair Chang.

Thank you, Chair. Since we're talking about infrastructure, you previously mentioned that there was a $180 million cost for phase one.

That was the estimate.

And how many housing units would that include?

Well, this is why we went up to 4,500 units. You know, we've been involved with this project since the issue of the first RFQ in 2019. The original RFP framework was 1500 units. We said with the amount of infrastructure that's going to be required on this project, you have to do four to 4,500 units or more in order to make economic sits out of the cost of infrastructure that needs to be laid in.

You need to amortize it over more density. Which is why the EIS was approved for 3.2 million square feet. Our FAR is 5.7 million, almost double the amount. That $180 million phase one infrastructure is what the estimates was generated by dredging civil department, Roland Badua, of what he estimates it's going to cost to relocate and install the new infrastructure within those roadways that to serve these vertical buildings.

For how many units?

Right, for phase 12,000 units and then how much? And 2,000 units commercial and two hotels.

And then how much would it cost to do the full build out of 4,500 units that you're proposing, infrastructure wise?

Infrastructure off the top...of the back of the envelope, another 400 million, 300 to 400 million. You start gaining some economies of scale. And when we start building on the south end or the eastern side of the site; we have soft material here. So, we're going to have less density and a lot more open space. This is where the stream was. This site is where two streams converge together.

So, you have very soft material, which is why the stadium was built where it was built. Right. They actually excavated the deep hole here.

That's why we were very comfortable that we're not going to find anything here because it was all excavated out.

Do you have estimates for how much it would cost to develop the infrastructure for the 10,000, the 20,000 or other unit counts?

You know, 10,000 units: I don't think you're even going to have, you're going to have a traffic issue. We're already going to have to build, definitely build one electrical substation and me, more than likely, have to build two.

We will be sizing this and our estimates are based on sizing it for what we have the 5.7 million square feet, approximately 4,000, 4,500-multi-family units, 900 keys of a hotel. And I can't recall exactly how many square feet of commercial and public spaces like the museum -

125,000 square feet of commercial.

The Music Hall of Fame, the food court areas, the Hawaii Sparks Hall of Fame which would be located within the stadium, where the - once the home to this for the stadium authority. So, when you size, when you want to estimate infrastructure, it's got to be sized for the capacity on the number of units.

You're going to build that. Right now Wilson Okamoto is doing a traffic impact analysis report. We are going to have to relocate the Satoru Abe volcano, and we want to replace it, relocate it somewhere along the promenade, so people can see it as well as the bus of Governor Burns. This roadway connection, which we call Road E, that will connect to Salt Lake Boulevard. I'm sorry, this is Road E. We have to maintain a certain distance from this four way intersection.

So they're doing traffic impact analysis report based on the number of units. You start taking it up to 10,000 units, two and a half times what we've got programmed today. You're going to need much more capacity and vehicular movement. You will.

It's just that's what the traffic engineers and that's one of the things that's holding us back from being able to freeze our roads so we can start designing to relocated utilities is that we need to get the civil the city to buy off on our plans.

And in order for them to buy off, they're going to ask the questions on trip generations. Okay.

And level of service, existing level of service, and the impact on the future level of service based on the number of units we build incremental and ultimately what's the full build out?

Okay. So, would it be possible for us to get a written estimate for infrastructure costs at those higher levels of units?

If you were asking for a ballpark, yes.

Okay, that would be great. Switching gears slightly: you've sold a lot of residential real estate in your life. Most of these units are not going to be subsidized, is that right?

Some of them will be. We're trying to address the entire housing ladder. So, there will be light tech units.

I don't want light tech units. But in your professional opinion, you think you can sell three, four thousand units of unsubsidized housing at this site?

We have a supply constrained market. Now the leasehold condominiums, it's got to be price adjusted. And I may be coming back to all of you one day to say, look, we need to sell the condos as fee simple. Because right now I can attest is an NCDA project that's resold 99 years and it's on hold. Right?

So, somewhere along the line I'm saying, look, we need to sell at least under the footprint of the condominium as fee simple and keep the commercial under leasehold, so that the state can realize an income generation. When we develop in Kakaako with Kamehameha Schools, all of our condos are sold in fee simple.

Kamehameha Schools retains all the commercial in leasehold because they own the land. In other parcels they have a passive ground lease and the developer just pays Kamehameha Schools on the ground lease, like World Hawaiian Shopping Center, you know.

But yeah, don't be surprised if I'm back when we go to pre-sales and we can't sell because it's not fee simple. And I'll be coming back before this body to beg you to allow us to sell condos in fee simple.

In principle: how many fee simple unsubsidized units could you sell on this site?

I would say at least 50% of it. 2,000 units.

What if you were fully entitled for 5 million units? Right. How many would you build and sell?

So, here's a couple of the challenges. And that's why we commissioned a third party market study with the Concord Group late last year. Because there has been no new condominium built in the Pearl City district since 1983, Park and Pearl Ridge, and the last condo project built in Salt Lake, which is the next neighborhood as a comp, was probably in the mid-90s during a very terrible economic cycle, especially in the real estate market 30 years ago.

So, we'd be pioneering and testing the new waters to build new condos here.

So, we're going to have to start off with a moderate product, you know, no frills, no thrills, not luxury, and work our way up. That's typically what we do in a master plan community. We'll start with entry level and start ticking up as we start, you know, setting the framework and integrity and quality of the community.

Now, the study that RCLCO had assumed they're going to sell condos between 1200 and 1500; 1260 bucks a foot for condos, which is in 2023 dollars, which is in excess of what condos are selling for in Kakaako. You know, and this is a parking lot right now. Right. So, we didn't agree with that study, those assumptions.

So, it's a lot more conservative. But right now, our focus is get this stadium going because we need that. Our university needs it, our community needs it. You know, when we went to Snapdragon, when they opened, all they had was San Diego State seven or eight games. Today they have 40 events and growing.

Right. We're talking to USL to bring professional soccer so that our kids have aspirations to play professional sport. Got a UH women's soccer league. They're pretty good. You know, they're talking about women's flag football today. We're talking about New Zealand, about rugby. So, we're designing this stadium.

That's right.

The team of architects are right back there in the last row, so they can accommodate all field sports. It'll be a pathway for our kids to enter into professional sports. The infrastructure you're talking about, we gotta resolve a lot of problems before we can even start building the first building, Senator.

That's why I wanted to share with you guys how difficult this project is and why is it costly because you got all of that to deal with and that needs to be dealt with. It would be much easier for us if there was nothing under that parking lot but just an asphalt over dirt.

But no, this is what we found out we got, and having staring at that: we gotta go fix it. And it's a daunting task, but we're up for it because we need to do it. It's got to get done. Somebody got to do it. Or you just put the pencils down and call it a day.

Thank you. Hang on, Senator. Let me go to Senator Wakai first, please.

Thank you, Mr. Sanford. Kudos to you and your team and the populous architects because I think Hawaii is finally going to get something that's aspirational. So, many times in Hawaii we just get the basics and we kind of just moan about how we really get something functional but is not really aspirational.

I mean, you're really providing the people of Hawaii with an aspirational stadium here. And I just want to ask, the 650 million dollar price tag you have for the renderings, you have does not include that second tier on the north and south. Right.

That it's just the sideline area and then the bottom tier of the north and south end zone.

Correct.

So, what's going to trigger us to get the second and third tier; is going to be more money? Is it going to be fan throughput or what's the trigger?

We're exploring all options. Everything's on the table. I firmly believe that if we designing an aspirational stadium that our community supports, that a capital campaign to raise money to engage the community would be well received. I think so, you know, because we need to invest in this. It's an economic engine.

This will become an economic stimulus for the area, for the neighborhood and for this island. And so, I firmly believe that I would. I've told you before, I won't put my name to a stadium that I'm not willing to autograph and that, you know, that we can all be proud of.

And that will attract, you know, preseason NFL games, right? Attract, you know, international entertainers to have concerts. You know, L.A. Rams played in 2019 prior to it being condemned, and they wanted, they came back to Hawaii last year to have their summer camp on Maui. They love Hawaii.

They would come back and I think we'd attract a lot, a lot more of the professional teams. My understanding through my discussions with Mr. Tokioka is that San Francisco 49ers, Raiders, Seattle Seahawks, Chargers, and Rams and - would come play here preseason games.

So, you picked the number right now at 31,000 with the expansion of the north and south end zones. Did I hear correctly? That was 38,000? Okay. And that would be triggered - because there's people.

38 to 40: again, we have the opportunity for different types of seating arrangement: Lowe's boxes, family lounges. There's a lot of branding. We have a lot of diversity that's in this as far as stadium opportunities and experiences that are tiered for different revenue opportunities.

And this is takeaways that we've learned from all of the different stadiums and arenas that we visit across the country.

You know, there's still people out there. The number is never going to satisfy the public. I mean, there's still people who think that we're going to get the Pro Bowl back here and we should have north of 50,000 seats. But your approach is a prudent approach, right? We're going to hit 31,000.

Hopefully the fans will put their money where their mouth is and actually show up to make the demand for expandable 40,000. But until we have real assurances and they're going to lay out future taxpayer monies, we really got to know it, make sure that people Hawaii are willing to go to the games and not just watch free games on TV.

For the same reason we pre sell before we build.

And then did I hear you correctly? Because I always thought that this was the stadium was going to be built by April or March of 2029. But you said August of 29th.

That's what it's looking at. We sat down in Dredging's office on Monday and vetted it with all the structural engineer, mechanical plumbing, the contractors, AECOM hunt, as well as Hawaiian dredging, and vetting all of the miles, major milestones we need to hit.

And right now, when we run out that schedule and drop in the logic and time frames for all of the disciplines: it's August of 2029. That's it. Now that's barring any hiccups or delays. And this morning we met with the mayor and we're going to - when we have a definitive granular plan on the schedule, CPM schedule, we're going to go in and identify the critical patch that at how fast we turn around. There was talk about building it without going to the city for permitting, but that can cause a lot of repercussions in the future, much like our roadways.

It is our intent to dedicate the roadways to the city because I would not want to burden the community with an additional fee for future replacement reserves and maintenance of the roadway utilities. Right?

So, did I hear you correctly going back to the second and third tiers for the north and south end zones, if warranted: who's going to pay for that? The taxpayers? Or are you going to eat that right now?

This project does not make any economic sense to bear the cost of subsidizing the stadium just wouldn't happen. We knew that going in, but we wouldn't be able to resolve or solve the problem if we didn't have a seat at the table, which is why I'm here.

Well, I'm sorry, I don't think you actually -

The way this RFP was structured was wrong, was flawed. It was never going to economically be viable. The way it was structured and proposed; no one would come in and write a check for $500 million to build a stadium that we deserve and make 500 million on the real estate. It's just not there.

I mean, look at how much money we got to lay in an infrastructure relocation and then install new infrastructure before I can build the vertical condominiums that I have to sell in order to pay back. You know, we're not going to recognize that return of infrastructure expended until we've sold at least a couple thousand condominium units.

Because you're front loading a lot of investment in the infrastructure. And it's compounded and exasperated by the fact that we got to relocate with what's existing.

Okay, I understand the financial model and the difficulties and the huge risk you're taking. I'm just going - can we just focus on the stadium?

Yes.

So, we have assured you we're going to use $350 million of taxpayer money. You have somehow financed the other 300 million on your own. My question though is: when we expand potentially, who's going to bear the cost of whatever that expansion is going to be?

Are you going to be coming back to us to say, "I need an extra $200 million to do this," or is that going to be something that you're going to pencil out with your finance team?

That is a option. We're going to explore all options. We're also exploring, this body knows, tax, housing, infrastructure, growth bonds. And so that's House Bill 2476 and 2478 as another option, which is what's utilized in 48 other cities across the country.

And what we're doing here, what the state has planned here as a mixed use urban community, you know, manifesting this old stadium and parking lot into an urban mixed use TOD is what's happening all over the country in many cities, because even existing major league baseball stadiums, it's dead, aside from the 80, 81 major league games a year, you know. So, they are reinvesting and providing incentives for developers to come in, invest.

They're providing these taxpayers benefits, tax increment financing, even securitizing the sales revenue tax, unemployment tax, every conceivable value added revenue they can capture to securitize and sell tax exempt bonds to utilize, to build out the community.

Okay, I want to go back to earlier in this discussion when we had talked about HCDA's role in the build out of the stadium and just the entire district.

And Mr. Nakamoto was mentioning that it's going to take him two plus years to come up with the rules to help make this thing kind of come alive and Mike, Mike Gadal was saying that he's got a good relationship with the city that can move this project along. What's, what's your take on who should be - where does HCDA's role play in the future again? If it's going to take them two years to get going and you got to get going now, how valuable is their role in actualizing this district?

So, in order to create the district, we'll have to go through the city and county. Because they service the bonds through the real property tax. They add a certain - that's the mechanism that they use to collect the fees and service the bonds. There's been two community facilities district bond executions in the state of Hawaii.

One in Kukuiula, Kauai, AMV did for the sewer plant, and one for the sewer transmission lines in Kaloko Heights on the Big Island. So, we would have to go before the city council and say we want to create this community facilities or tax income in district and that needs to be approved.

That's step one. And we probably will be coming back in the future to say that we not only need the real property tax, but this general excise tax credit, TAT, that would be generated to service the bonds until the bonds are redeemed and paid off. Then the city and the state get their respective tax revenue forever, right.

But right now this site is generating zero real property tax for the city, a nominal amount of GE tax when there is an event there. Right now, it's just swap meet.

Right? General excise tax on the swap meet revenues.

Okay, stop here; let me just rephrase the question there: s HCDA's involvement helpful or not helpful?

The bill was passed to give them bond authority.

But we have another bill pending right now that will put them kind of in the driver's seat.

I don't know how we're going to work the logistics out between the city and HCDA. That needs to be figured out. I haven't gone that deep a dive, but what we're doing here and contemplating is not reinventing the wheel. It's been done in many other cities. It's been done twice in Hawaii already. So, there's precedents.

So, I would say we pull out, you know, the files of those two bond executions and we also look at other districts that have successfully, you know, developed this.

Okay, I'm still not getting an answer.

You don't have to read.

Hang on just a second. Senator Wakai, I think maybe - Craig, pull up one Chair, right on the side. Come. I think the question is for him to answer once the HCDA is involved.

And I think the question should be if HCDA is to take over the processing of a lost stadium, I mean prioritizing of a law stadium and nascent, how long will it take for the process? And do you have a timeline of that process in this case? And what is that timeline?

Thank you, Chair. Let me kind of rephrase that a little bit, I think to what Senator Wakai was asking.

I think the question that's being asked is under the separate bill that you mentioned, 2599, the question is: should HCDA be inserted into this stadium development district as the zoning regular regulatory authority like we are in Kaka'ako or Kauai. And when we do, we're gonna supersede city zone.

Can you speak into them mic a bit?

I don't want to get too close to you.

Yeah, I'm contagious.

Now you told us.

So, I think that's the question. Do you want HCDA to be the zoning and entitlement agency for land use for the stadium?

Once that happens, okay, once we promulgate rules and it's going to take about two years or more to promulgate those, then at that point for land use and entitlement, not for building permit purposes, we're going to be the land use and entitlement authority for that stadium development district, just like how we are for Kaka'ako Kalaeloa.

Now, going to the question of need, Senator, kind of answer the question kind of backwards coming in a little bit. I think. As I heard Kaloa mentioned, I heard Stanford mention that, right now, they've programmed and have plans for 4,500 housing units, 900 keys, so many square feet of commercial residential, commercial retail space. Correct?

And it's already programmed and it's already agreed upon between state and Stanford's development group, HDP.

Do they need more entitlement? How—do they need more entitlement to do what they're doing? The 4,500 units, the hotel, the commercial, residential. And I think the answer is no. They—the answer is no. Right? You guys don't need that.

We still gotta go get approved.

Yeah, but, but, but you don't need more entitlements from—more entitlements than that. So, I think the entitlements are there to allow Stanford to do what he needs to do or what they program and plan to do at the state, at the stadium development.

More or less. Yeah. Use entitlements are there.

Yeah. Yeah. So, so, so, we, so, we don't—just saying they've got what they need under city zoning and the, to the overlay, to do what they have to do from a land use perspective, more or less.

So, you bringing no value to this project. If they can go and work with the city, we don't need you to be another layer on top.

When you put it that way, I feel kind of bad now, but essentially, I think the answer is.

Waiting for your answer. Just say yes or no. That's all I need.

I think the answer is yes, we don't bring any value to that because it's like another regulatory layer.

Okay, thank you. Sorry.

Yes, sorry. Let me go with Senator Lee first and give them—oh, okay. Then I come back.

They're gonna need our votes. That's why she and I have to go downstairs. Sorry.

Thanks very much. I had a couple questions, but before we get on to that, just on this point, you guys have CFFD authority?

So, CFD. So, let me clarify that. So, what Stanford mentioned, CFDs can only be done by the counties, so he mentioned two CFD projects. Those were both county projects currently.

Well, but you guys have the authority we gave you last year to do that.

So, let me clarify that. We can—under Act 252, which was House Bill 1007, we had the authority to work with the counties to, you know, to do a CFD. We also have the ability to—we have the bond ceiling cap of $180 million that Stanford mentioned and to issue bonds, right, subject to underwriting, working with BNF, making sure there's a repayment source and all those things.

It's just like having a line of credit of $180 million. To issue bond one, we're going to have to have the money and the revenue stream to pay it off. It's just like drawing down on a line of credit.

Once you draw down dollar one, you better have the money to pay it back, the debt service. So, yeah, the $180 million is in Act 252, but it's just bond ceiling cap and we have to go through underwriting. We have to have a revenue source to pay it off.

And that's you and that's not the city.

No, that part is me.

The bond float is in your capacity.

But the CFD part is under, I think, Chapter 46 of HRS.

So, just on this, so, the reason, because this came up last year, right. This was the whole part of that discussion, prior.

Act 252.

Right, on the prior bill. The intent there, and I've got the Bill in front of me, but I don't have time to read in the weeds in this moment, was to give you guys explicit authority independent of the counties to be able to do financing through those mechanisms because we all know it's not used very often, I think to Stanford's point.

And trying to get the counties to do anything can sometimes be difficult. That said, or I should say that aside, for, currently, I think what's being proposed, right, the zoning is theoretically there.

You still need to go through all the city processes and everything else, notwithstanding the fact that eventually, we'll get a new mayor, we have a new council. We don't know what the relationship I would assume is going to be between the city and the state at that point.

Because we got rail and all kinds of other stuff going on having value where there's some level of state control that we can guarantee Stanford and the project a path that's not going to run into politics down the road I think was part of that conversation around how do we ensure projects don't get hung up and things spiral out of control.

But my question, I guess ultimately is, going forward in your timeline, theoretically, even if you were to start, let's say tomorrow, bill passes the end of session, within a couple years time, take you to do rules and all that stuff. Right?

But at that point, and given where Stanford's timeline is, we're still going to be in the middle of this whole process generally.

And so, if the process and in your part isn't to change the whole structure of what's going on, but rather to act as a backstop for financing and other things so that we don't end up back here having to answer questions about why it is you guys need more money, should, you know, the economy or whatever change, I don't think my understanding is taxpayers are going to be probably interested in putting a whole 'nother tranche of money into the project, but you would have the tools then independent of the county to then finance.

So, let me try to unpack. There's a lot of that. Yeah, there's a lot of parts here, so let me take a minute to unpack that. I don't know if we look at ourselves as a backstop to financing, but there is the ability to issue bonds subject to underwriting.

I think to your point about administrations changing, city administrations changing, I've heard that the sentiment about HCDA being involved in this process is kind of three things—state land, state money, state project. So, state should be the one that's overseeing the land use entitlement.

So, there's some validity to that point, Senator, that, you know, maybe there should be a state approval over it. On, on the timing of the two years—this goes to your, your question, Chair, too. So, two years seems like a long time—two years or more seems like a long time.

But I think if we look at that realistically, Stanford and his team, before they can build vertical project number one, number one, they have to plan the infrastructure and size it to what they're going to be building and put in the infrastructure before they come in for land use entitlement on those vertical structures, assuming we're there.

And I think that infrastructure part, right, and all that is going to take more than two years to implement. Right? So, by the time, two years seems like a long time, but the timing is right.

If they need to do infrastructure first, plan it, finance it, get all the money, put all those things down before the vertical starts coming up. Is that accurate, Stanford?

Yes.

Let me pause there for a sec. Thank you for that. I have to run. I think we all have to run downstairs in a few minutes.

They deferred it for, for another day.

Okay. In that case, let's order some pizza. So, not saved by the bell. Okay. Well, anyway, there's a lot to be.

I better get pizza.

One other thing and before I turn it back over to other folks, you know, for some time, obviously with the whole TOD corridor being one kind of central stop throughout that the commuting, not only by car along each one and rail and all that stuff, but also, you have the Pearl Harbor Bike Path and all the multimodal stuff going on and with all E-bikes and everything, most of these other places and the examples that were cited here, both Corvallis, where I went to school, Petco, SD, all these other places have been basically building out that commuter infrastructure.

Not—and so, ultimately, part of the conversations that we had had, or I had—or a few of us have had with Brennan—I think isn't less, this is less than you think, I think everybody think, along the way, we're ensuring that you either have easements or you have infrastructure put in place that takes that into account. Because this is basically the giant hub, I think in the urban core area where you'd have that kind of connectivity ultimately built out.

And there's currently, you know, multiple projects and various agencies building that out. And so, I just wanted to make sure that's still part of the thing because we've been assured, I think every single year for the last, I think three or four years, that that would be part of the project every time we had asked

Multimodal connectivity or TOD.

Yeah. Specifically, it was making sure that you have around, either through or around the perimeter of the property, the multimodal connections for commuting purposes. So, active bike, pedestrian, everything, all that stuff. Multimodal.

We're designing all of our roads for complete streets.

Yeah, but not so much through the roads because you're trying to—you're essentially building out the longer term. So, what was specifically asked at the time was ensuring that you have a loop around the full property.

We're preserving the perimeter role that exists today because we also have emergency mains that we need to maintain.

So, the vehicular and other modalities transportation around the perimeter of the site is preserved, yeah.

But is there the actual infrastructure put in place? Do you have those bike and pedestrian connections?

Those are going to be installed as we develop each area.

You mean like those like cones that segregate bike lines from like cars?

Well, no. I mean it's all supposed to be protected stuff or per statute. So, they're planning for all that, making sure that that's there both for the commuting that goes on, right. So, you don't want people coming in from Pearl City side as they head toward downtown.

Kamehameha Highway, Pearl City. I mean sites like an island within an island, it's surrounded by major arterials. Right? So, we can't do anything on the off sites.

But having a weight of connections on the on site and...feels that what we're planning to do to shut down Salt Lake fronting the transit side so it's contiguous from the stadium site.

So, as people disembark skyline, they can walk right through without any eruptions to the stadium site will actually improve the traffic flow of traffic turning Salt Lake into a two-way street for sure.

I guess what I was getting at is the non-rail connection. So, for example, all the stadiums we talked about, right? The city and/or state Caltrans, in some cases was MTA in San Diego, or PBOT, or others putting in those connections because when you're doing a project of this scale and size and you're using it as one kind of stop along that commuter pathway—commuter which is not currently as I see it envisioned.

So one of the things we planned for along here there's a, a bus and vehicular drop off. Right here, we have a separate lane.

It's not shown on this map, but where they come off a decel lane and pull into our property to drop off. Plus, you're right, you know, Uber, others, we will so that it's easy off coming off Salt Lake and getting back on Salt Lake.

We can take this offline too because it's getting in the weeds. But basically, when you have folks who are commuting through the site, right, coming from further west toward the downtown area or back, which is ultimately part of one of the projects the city's working on right now with a bunch of its funds creating that full connection so you can actually commute.

And now, with E bikes and everything else, it's viable for people to do, not just with this as a destination, but with this as one stop along the way, making sure that infrastructure is in place so that the site as a hub for a lot of those connections can operate that way as a hub and you have those obvious and clear connections so people can ingress and egress through the area without having to stop and go through a bunch of street crossings and all that stuff.

You're wayfinding through the community.

Wayfinding? Yeah, with the obvious safe infrastructure. So, anyway, we'll follow up on that.

Thank you. I just wanted to give Senator DeCorte a chance. Do you have any questions? Okay, Senator Inouye.

Okay, good. We're in infrastructure. Back to the plans for Salt Lake Boulevard and I have a condo there, so I'm familiar with the roads. Now, Craig, the $180 million infrastructure includes the—also doing the entire Salt Lake because we're increasing, we know the present condition of Salt Lake.

You can't put the stadium right there because a part of the ways is just a two lane, one going and one coming back. Now, is that city—Salt Lake a city or state? City, yeah? Right now. Okay, so is that part of the development then? And the $180 million is because—and why I raised that is because according to the plans, it's going to be a major infrastructure change.

And so, with $100 million for the infrastructure and the bond float, is that part of the—because you got to do condemnation now on the properties along the entire way to do the lanes that you talked about, unless it's just one area closer to the stadium park, then.

We call it Essex Lot.

Oh, okay. Okay.

Have a build of retaining walls, adjacent to the Alava Heights.

Well, the reason I raise it because when you're going to make improvements on the roadway, you know, you're going to need to get access.

Now, with regards to easements, earlier you talked about that this project, you're going to condemn the easements for your management part. Is the condemnation only within the stadium area or also including the improvements that you're going to do for Salt Lake?

No, it's the, it's the easements.

Within, on the side. Okay. All right.

Yeah. And Senator, let me just clarify. So, the 180 million that you referred to, it's just a bond ceiling cap. That's all it represents. And Stanford has talked about what he is proposing to build with or use the 180 million.

Sure. And further, I kind of agree with Chair Lee as well with the role that you played the bill that we passed to give you the opportunity to be there. Because as my understanding, Chair Dela Cruz and Wham also feels that the state has to be involved because the bond flows and the opportunity that the state needs to be there with this size of this project. And I totally agree that we maintain at least part of the management project within the state's capacity.

And Senator, let me just also add, even if HCDA didn't get this as a community development district, as Chair Lee pointed out, we have another part of our statute that allows us to do TOD infrastructure related improvements.

So, under that section, you know, with, even without the district, you know, because it's in a TOD area, we can work on infrastructure projects.

That's correct.

And you're correct, you're part of the TOD development boundaries. Thank you. Thank you, Chair.

That section for statute, by the way, is 206E, 246C, which gives you unilateral authority to issue and finance bonds in a manner to be determined through the bond issuance process, which is your CFT statute.

Yeah.

So, independent of account.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. That's independent accounting. But it's like the bonds. But I think the CFD part is Chapter 46. Okay, thank you.

So, I just want to follow up. So, so, again, I like go back to the, the question of permitting and the fact of HCDA on the permitting process. Can you give me a written timeline of that process and just back to the Committee, send it to us. Are you—just kind of like on better idea.

Because I know you, your area is not the permitting part of it. Yeah. So, yeah, I'm more concerned with—we know how permits work. They take forever and a day and stuff. But I wanted coming from HCDA on how that would look and I just trying to figure things out.

And just so I make sure I get you what you want, what you want is the proposed timeline and the steps to get to finish up the plan and rules, right? The two years it would take to finish up the plan and rules?

The plan and rules itself, you know, step by step, plan on, okay, this comes first.

Sure, I can get that here. And I'm going to caveat it, Senator, with some, you know, that times may slip a little bit. We also have to build in time to get the funds released from BNF. I mean that takes sometimes June till sometimes December to get that done.

And then, we have to procure for some of it. So, I can get you that. But this will be rough now. Yeah, okay. Subject to change.

I will tell you isolate later after I look at rough. Thank you. Thank you. I, I Director King, I want to, I got a question for you there. Sorry. Thank you, guys. Appreciate it. Yeah, yeah, let me—oh, you know what you want from Stafford?

One more.

Yeah, yeah.

And then, so, Stanford, going back to the 650 million and the 180 million. So, the 189 is for the bond?

It's, it's, it, it's an option. The CDA bond cap that was passed last year, Act 252. There's also CFD.

Can you use the mic? Because he's being taped.

Yeah, sorry.

I guess I just want the relationship between the $650 million for the state.

They're separate and apart. They're separate apart.

So, the one I thought when we talked about, the 180, was going to be the cost for that rectangle area that when you get off the stadium to build that out.

No, no.

That infrastructure for that.

It's the relocation of the existing utilities in phase one and the installation of new. Yes.

And the 650 is the cost to build the stadium.

The 31,000 seats.

Yeah. Without the waves. And so, we appropriated only 350. So, where that extra money is going to come from?

I'm certain. I—look, we're, we're, that's why.

Let me—Director, can you come up here and answer that question for us? I want you to answer that question. Where's the, where's the level of that money coming home?

That's where you going to come from? Because we're talking about, you know, just the infrastructure we're hearing about, well, can you build more units? We can't even build—we don't even have the money to build the $650 million stadium.

Well, first of all, thank you for the 350 million. And we know that, you know, of course, Senator Wakai and all of you have been very supportive of the stadium. Our good friend here, Stanford Carr, is the boldest man and he's calculating all of this.

Well, okay, it's, it's many different methods of finances that he's looking at now. And, and many different things. I think we've talked about potential, fulfilling traffic.

So, right now, we don't, we don't, we don't know where that money is coming from. Is that the bottom line?

He said that in earlier testimony.

So, where does that leave us? If we don't get the money, where does that leave us? I mean, all of this before not right. You got to come back to us and ask us for the other 300 million. Is that the?

Okay, I think what I heard is Stanford's saying that he's working on all these different things and one option could be.

I've heard that for a couple years now.

Yes. And, you know, our friends in the House, previous leadership, said that they weren't going to contemplate anything like that. So, it's not an easy question. And I can't answer that question, Senator. I wish I could. We are doing everything to help Stanford.

I think he's bold, and I don't know that I would be as bold as him, but, you know, it's a personal commitment and I know you want the facts. I cannot give you any facts.

Well, I hate to come two years from now or a year from now to say, well, we don't have the money. Legislature, you need to put the money, legislation, no. So, there is not going to be an opening 2029 of August or April, whatever date. Right?. That's if this date is subject to raising the money.

When is the last deadline to raise the rest of the money before we realize we're not going to meet this August 2029 deadline?

I would, I would say a year from now.

Okay, so a year from now. So, people keep hoping and praying for one year from now, or is there going to be some kind of a community raising the funds to pay for the balance?

We had a meeting this morning and he brought that up. And there's just—he and I and the Governor have talked about at least four different potential options to help raise the money. And so, it's not like we're just banking on one thing or two things.

Because you cannot keep telling the people, yes, we're going to get the stadium and knowing all the well, and I've told that to our neighborhood boys and there's a lot of moving parts that right now that project may not come to fruition. Right? We hope it will.

Yes, but right now, what we do need to do is—it's a condemned stadium. We need to tear it down. We need to relocate these existing utilities and make new connections.

And is that money coming out of the 350?

Correct. That needs to happen.

So, at the end of the day, we're not going to even have that.

How, however, let me qualify that again, Senator, that it was—one option is to use the $180 million or use a CFD bond issue, not the 350 million that GO bonds appropriated for the stadium.

Okay. So, the 650 does not include the 180 for the infrastructure?

Correct.

If you took the 180 out of the, out of the 350, we're going to need 70,—$800 million?

Correct. That's correct.

And we have one year, you're saying.

From a timing standpoint, yes. No more than a year.

Okay.

So, I, I realize the pressure and the time constraint.

Wanted to get that on the record.

It's one of those things that keep me up at night.

So, so, the option can be to use the CFD.

I missed a question.

The option can be to use the CFD?

For the 180 mil.

Yes. Correct. Correct. And it can be recapitalized with tax increment financing. A lot of projects, they use both the CFD as an interim and the TIF as a permanent.

So, if we did one short, that's an option?

Yes.

Okay.

Part of it, yes. So, the first one was in Kukuila, and your friend and I, Darryl Kaneshiro, did the first one for Kukuila. But it made perfect sense because you're talking about people with the very rich and that's CFD paid for their infrastructure.

So, let me say this, Director, let me say this. We know there's a lot of investors out there. I would think that for those that—and by the way, I like the view. Please don't block the view because I like to look at mountains when I come here instead of buildings. I like that.

What's the videos?

Yeah, and you know, I think this, you know, that's, that's a scenic thing to see. You know, like the game and you know, the camaraderie and stuff. But you know, I see people buy into an 8,000 square foot hole in the wall for millions, isn't it?

I mean we gotta be honest. In haiku, I had the billionaires buy out the millionaires within the last 10 years. You got billionaires all over this place in Hawaii. You cannot tell me half of them aren't sports boss and so forth. So, I mean there's options, right?

There's investments along...that we're looking at.

Well, I can tell you that we're not sitting around waiting for people to come talk to us. We are talking to people that have resources, let's put it that way.

Thank you. Anybody else have any other question? Seeing none, Committee. Thank you, Chairs. Thank you, Chair Chang. Thank you for your time slot, Chair Lee and Committee Members. Thank you guys for the presentation. I appreciate it. Awesome. Take care. Thank you. With that, we are adjourned.