It was about 20 years in the making, but the Aiea Public Library finally has a new home where the old Aiea Sugar Mill once stood.

Roughly 800 people attended in the first hour of the long-awaited opening Saturday and a steady flow of people continued to arrive totaling close to 1,500, library branch Manager Baron Baroza estimated.

"It was a heartwarming feeling to see all the community there," said Aiea Community Association President Claire Tamamoto, who has worked tirelessly over the years

to bring the library, a town center and a senior care facility to the site. "They’ve been waiting a long time.

I really want to extend a thank you to community members," library, government, architectural and construction personnel.

"The community association continues to hold on to the dream of the redevelopment of the whole sugar mill site," she said.

The $10.4 million, 17,200-square-foot library, on the site of the former Aiea Sugar Mill at 99-374 Pohai Place, replaces the former 10,724-square-foot building at 99-143 Moanalua Road that served library patrons for nearly 50 years.

The new library will seek LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Gold Certification and includes features to reduce electricity costs such as a high-efficiency air-conditioning system and 6,000 square feet of photovoltaic solar panels.

The larger space has more shelf space, with 60,000 books now, but room to grow for 80,000 to fill the shelves over the next few years, Baroza said.

Baroza said the architect, who is from Aiea and has fond memories of the mill, kept the mill theme in mind when designing the new building, which is industrial and has open duct work.

"We’re just very excited that it’s finally open," said Kelsy Hernandez-Saca, 34. She and her two daughters were delighted to finally walk into the new building. "We’ve been waiting a long time."

She said her 5-year-old borrowed five books and "thinks it’s neat you can get books every time we go … and you can get them for free."

Her 2-year-old borrowed two books.

Hernandez-Saca has fond childhood memories of going to the library and hopes to instill that in her children. Her older daughter just finished a reading program at the library.

"It’s fun," she said. "Especially in this day when so much is digital, it’s nice to get books."

Bryan Dieter, 35, attended the opening with his wife.

"It’s a little more accessible" than the old library and has more parking space. "I think it’s a good opportunity for the library, being closer to the high school," to work together to build it into the education system, he added.

Among those in attendance were Gov. Neil Abercrombie, Senate President Donna Mercado Kim, Sen. David Ige, Reps. K. Mark Takai and Gregg Takayama, City Councilwoman Carol Fukunaga, CDS International architect Glenn Miura, and state Librarian Richard Burns.

 The ceremony featured a prelude and musical accompaniment by Grammy award-winning slack-key guitarist Jeff Peterson and presentation of the colors by a Marine color guard from Camp Smith.

The opening comes about 20 years after the project was first proposed.

Led by Tamamoto, community members focused their efforts on securing the former sugar mill land as the site of a new library. The acquisition was included in the Aiea Town Center Master Plan, and in 2002 the state Legislature appropriated $2.5 million to purchase the land.

Then-Gov. Linda Lingle

released the funds to purchase five fee-simple lots for the library.

In 2010, the Legislature set aside $9 million for the planning, design and construction. Abercrombie released the funds last year.

Ground was broken in March 2013.