Rebuilt memorial facility to cost $34M

By James Gonser
Advertiser Urban Honolulu Writer

The USS Arizona Memorial is an outdated facility no longer able to accommodate the millions of visitors who come to pay their respects, and plans are under way to build a new $34 million visitors center and museum, fund-raisers said yesterday.

"It's a replacement of an entire structure that is now the museum and business center," Sgan said. "It will have major features including increased museum space, a large amphitheater for events and perhaps the Pearl Harbor ceremonies themselves, an expanded book store and a major video conference center for our Witness to History program."

About $7.5 million already has been raised and local support from the city, state and community is critical to convincing Mainland organizations to finance the effort, he said.

"Imagine a Honolulu and O'ahu without the USS Arizona Memorial," Sgan told the City Council's Park Committee yesterday during a project presentation. "It adds a dimension to our cultural life, to our economic life, to all facets of our life. So I hope you will join us in ensuring its survival and expansion."

He asked the committee to back a request for a $1 million grant to build the modernized facility. It would need approval from the full council.

Plans include improvements to parking, traffic and coordination with other historical attractions at Pearl Harbor, including the USS Bowfin Submarine Museum and Park and the USS Missouri Memorial.

Planned exhibits would include a gallery called "The Fallen," which would tell the story of those who died on Dec. 7, 1941, during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, and an exhibit about life aboard the battleship. Other exhibits would include historical films and artifacts from the war and its aftermath and an aerial photograph of the sunken ship.

At its center there would be an exhibit called "The New Beginning," with a declaration of peace signed by American and Japanese veterans in 1995 at the 50th anniversary observance of the end of the war.

"We expect to have a central entrance where visitors can get a ticket to any of the museums, including the air museum going in on Ford Island," George E. Sullivan, chairman of the association, told the committee.

The final design has not been selected yet and is a work in progress, Sullivan said.

The fund-raising plan is similar to projects including repairs to the Statue of Liberty and efforts to build Washington's World War II memorial that combine public and private money, he said.

Sullivan said the USS Arizona is a national treasure that desperately needs to be upgraded.

"The National Park Service asked us to raise the money for this project, and we have formed the Pearl Harbor Memorial Fund," Sullivan said. "It's Hawai'i's No. 1 tourist attraction; it's a significant contributor to the ongoing health of the economy in the state; and, we have a growing annual payroll of $2.1 million."

According to the association, the current center has structural deterioration as a result of water intrusion, inadequate climactic controls for museum artifacts and insufficient educational and exhibit space. The center was built in 1980 and cost $4.9 million but was not designed to accommodate current crowds. People wait in line for hours to get tickets for the memorial and to view the exhibits, he said.

Sullivan said the original plan was to spend $10 million for expansion, but an engineering study concluded the building has less than a 10-year-life left. The structure is cracking and has settled about 30 inches into the harbor. It has been leveled five times at a cost of $2 million.

Sullivan said more than 1.5 million people are expected to visit the site this year, which benefits the city and the state by bringing an estimated $23 million into the economy.

City Councilman Charles Djou, chairman of the Parks Committee, agreed that the memorial is important to the city, but said the request for money comes during tough economic times.

"One million dollars is a lot of money and will be hard to find," Djou said. "But this is important."

Sullivan said the association is currently in a "quiet phase" of fund-raising and is planning an official ceremony to kick off the public campaign Dec. 7. He asked that the city consider providing money in its fiscal 2007 budget which will be considered next year.

The money for the new museum is expected to be raised by 2009, with construction to begin in early 2007, leveraged by funds and pledges, Sullivan said. Construction is expected to take about 20 months.

The group also is asking the state to contribute $3 million, and bills are currently in the Legislature seeking the money. Hawai'i's congressional delegation is working to secure another $7 million in federal financing, he said.

About $3 million is expected to come from a grassroots campaign, and the remaining $20 million would come from private contributions — with about 80 percent of that amount from the Mainland, he said.

A portion of that money would be used for an endowment to pay salaries and administrative costs, he said.

Reach James Gonser at 535-2431 or jgonser@honoluluadvertiser.com.

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