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Honolulu's beloved Blaisdell Center prepares for a $44M face-lift

The Blaisdell Arena in Honolulu in March 2023.
Casey Harlow
/
HPR
The Blaisdell Center will undergo infrastructure and energy efficiency upgrades that have been deferred over the years. The renovation is part of a $44M project revamping the 22-acre Neal S. Blaisdell campus in urban Honolulu.

The City and County of Honolulu is spending $43.6 million to address deferred maintenance at the aging Blaisdell Concert Hall.

"We started with the concert hall, but then realized 'Oh, no we have to spread out to the whole campus,'" said Mary Lewis, the city's events and services administrator.

The Blaisdell is considered Honolulu's first convention center, after officially opening in 1964. Formerly known as the Honolulu International Center, the venue has since hosted major musicals, sporting events, conventions and more.

There are currently about two dozen projects to improve the Blaisdell arena, concert and exhibition halls. Projects include installing a new roof on the concert hall, upgrading a dozen office and suite spaces in the exhibition hall, and upgrading the infrastructure of the arena.

"We've been working on this since 2020. And prior to that, we had a brainstorming session where we all wrote down what we think was broken," Lewis said.

Blaisdell Exhibition Hall in March 2023
Casey Harlow
/
HPR
The city will renovate the Blaisdell Exhibition Hall's roof, replace its air handling units, and renovate the building's meeting rooms.

Most of the Blaisdell renovations are expected to take a few months. According to the city, the arena will be closed between May and November 2023, and the exhibition hall between July and August 2023. The concert hall is expected to be closed between July 2023 and June 2024.

Other upgrades include improving walkway lighting, paving deteriorated portions of the parking lot and installing new telecommunications infrastructure.

Lewis told HPR events that are scheduled at the Blaisdell facilities are either being relocated to other city venues, such as the Waikīkī Shell, or being rescheduled.

This is the latest effort from the city to update the Blaisdell campus. Former Honolulu mayor Kirk Caldwell's administration planned to revamp the site, at an estimated cost of $772 million. However, the then-mayor scrapped those plans in 2020, due to the rising costs associated with the rail project.

The Blangiardi administration told HPR it doesn't have any long-term plans for the Blaisdell campus after this project.

"It's hard to predict what the new technology will be. But certainly, we want to keep up with it," Lewis said.

Casey Harlow was an HPR reporter and occasionally filled in as local host of Morning Edition and All Things Considered.
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