The removal of the once-blazing neon marquee is a sore point.
Photo by Craig Kojima, Star-Bulletin

The cost - so far - in renovating the Hawaii Theatre, which celebrates its opening this weekend, is $28 million, $12 million of which came from state taxpayers.

Figures from the State Foundation and Culture and the Arts, which administers the funds, show taxpayer investment in the project grew steadily during the last decade.

In the 1989 fiscal year, $400,000 in state dollars were given to restore the orchestra pit and stage floor.

In 1990, $1.15 million was given for "design and construction," plus $850,000 for stage rigging, lighting and sound equipment.

In 1991, $2 million was provided to restore the interior and exterior facades, the lobby and a proscenium mural, and to install the rigging lighting, sound equipment and a new roof, and to build in new electrical, plumbing and mechanical fixtures.

In 1992, $3 million was awarded interior and exterior improvements.

In 1993, another $3 million was appropriated when unanticipated problems with digging into coral and termite damages made costs go up.

Another $1.6 million was appropriated for the project before and after this time period, according to the foundation.

The scale of the renovation also increased during these years. In 1987, theater officials estimated that the amount needed for renovation was about $6.1 million. In 1990, that amount became $9.5 million; in 1993, $21 million.

The current overall budget is pegged at $30 million. In addition to $12.4 million in state funds, $10.2 million comes from private donations and $6 million from a loan mortgaged on neighboring property the theater organization acquired for expansion and rental income. And $2 million is still needed to complete the present phase.

Some of the budget goes to pay the salary of executive director Sarah Richards, who began working in that position in 1989 after a stint as head of the culture and arts foundation.

According to Hawaii Theatre Center tax returns for the fiscal year June 1994 to May 1995, Richards earned $65,000 a year as the center's primary employee.

Since last May, an operating staff of eight has been hired, Richards said, and a couple more are still needed.

The theater organization is a private non-profit organization and operates with Richards in charge. A board of volunteers oversees the operation.

Through the years, some theater critics have questioned the way the organization has spent its money. The amount of work contracted out of the state has also bothered others.

A legislative resolution in last year's session asking for an audit of state funds died in committee. Then-Rep. David Hagino, who helped introduce the resolution, had once served on the theater board and resigned when requests for state funding began to increase.

"I introduced the resolution because the state money was suppose to go for historic preservation - that's how the requests were presented to us - and it seemed to be going for reconstruction," said Hagino. "I thought it would be a good idea to discover if that were true. We still don't know."

Rick Romer, a set decorator and theatrical consultant, testified at the resolution hearings.

"I've always been an ally of the theater. But I thought it would be good to see where all the money went," said Romer. "I testified that it wasn't a good idea to use the $6 million in land as loan collateral, and other concerns."

Romer was also unhappy about the out-of-state spending.

According to the theater's tax return, of $2,370,962 declared spent on renovating the theater, $1,722,457 was spent with out-of-state firms.

Romer said local firms had difficulties bidding for the work and materials.

"For example, the specs on the rigging said that it must be Tiffin Scenic Studios rigging, and so only Tiffin could supply the rigging."

"There's nothing special about Tiffin rigging and supplies," said Bob Alder, a theatrical consultant.

Mary Bishop, the theater's renovation consultant, who had worked with the Ohio Theatre in Columbus, said that the organization "wanted the best of everything, and we needed to absolutely rely on everything we bought, because Hawaii is so far away.

"Everyone who was here, I worked with previously at the Ohio Theatre. As a member of the Theatre Historical Society of America, you get great respect for those you know have integrity."

The Hawaii's budget puts it near the top of the most expensive theaters projects in the United States, said preservation scholar Lowell Angell, an instructor at the University of Hawaii's Historic Preservation department, a director of the Theatre Historical Society of America, and a founding member of the theater board.

Consultant Alder and others feel that the organization didn't get the biggest bang for its big

bucks. Theaters on the mainland that were similar size and condition to the Hawaii are costing a quarter to one-third the cost, he said.

In Glendale, Calif., the city bought the recently reopened Alex Theatre in 1990 and completely restored it for $3 million, he said. In Los Angeles, the Wiltern Theatre - a gutted shell awaiting demolition, with twice the seating of the Hawaii - was completely restored with an enlarged stage, for $7 million.

"Even the New Amsterdam in New York, which was really derelict, is being restored by (the) Walt Disney (company) for a fraction of that cost," Angell added.

Richards said the money was "unbelievably well-spent considering that we were going ahead with reconstruction at the same time we were raising the funds. At some point you've got to drive a stake in the ground and proceed, with a lot of faith in the project. The money was spent immediately on construction; it didn't sit around."

University of Hawaii historic-preservation chair Bill Chapman figured that the costs for the Hawaii renovation are "on the high end compared to what similar projects have cost on the mainland. The problem here is that these costs then become our measuring stick, and fear of similar costs could stop renovation of other theaters."

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