The Department of Veterans Affairs Pacific Islands Healthcare System officially broke ground Tuesday on its long-planned community clinic for the Leeward side.

The Advanced Leeward Outpatient Healthcare Access multispecialty clinic — or ALOHA — was a pet project of the late U.S. Sen. Daniel Akaka, but the VA was never able to secure funds to make the project a reality. It will be the first new major VA project of its size since the Spark Matsunaga VA Ambulatory Care Clinic opened at Tripler Army Medical Center in 2000.

The 88,675-square-foot outpatient clinic will provide primary and mental health care, X-ray, laboratory and diagnostic services, a pharmacy and specialty care, according to a news release. The facility, which is expected to open in late 2023, is being developed by Hunt Cos. Hawai‘i.

“Today is an important day as we carry out a key priority of Senator Akaka to create a health care facility for more than 87,000 veterans on Oahu, a majority of them who live right here on the Leeward Coast,” U.S. Rep. Kai Kahele, D-Hawaii, said in remarks during Tuesday’s ceremony.

Carlos Santana, a staffer for U.S. Sen. Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii, and Army veteran who was involved in efforts to get the facility built, used the occasion to announce that the U.S. Senate had passed legislation to name the new facility after Akaka, with the legislation awaiting approval from the House of Representatives.

The late senator served in the Army during World War II, including service on Tinian and Saipan. Last year Akaka, who was of mixed Hawaiian and Chinese descent, posthumously received the Congressional Gold Medal along with thousands of other Chinese American World War II veterans in recognition of their service.

“Senator Akaka was a tireless champion for Hawaii’s veterans and recognized that Leeward, a lot of veterans in particular were underserved,” Santana said. “But once this clinic is completed, Leeward Oahu veterans will finally be able to receive a high standard of care close to home.”

The VA’s Pacific Island Healthcare System is unlike any other system in the agency. Formerly based out of the Prince Kuhio Federal Building and now headquartered at Tripler Army Medical Center, it has long been short on facilities of its own, instead relying instead on partnerships with ­military installations and various hospitals and community clinics spread across the islands of the Pacific.

The system is responsible for taking care of veterans on all the islands in Hawaii as well as the territories of American Samoa, Guam and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. Though the VA has used telemedicine to reach veterans on distant islands across 2.6 million square miles of ocean, some specialty medicine and procedures need to be done in person.

During the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, Pacific islanders joined the military in high numbers. A study of 2003 recruiting data found Pacific Islanders joined the Army at a rate 249% higher than that of other ethnic groups. Dr. Adam Robinson, the VA Pacific island system’s director, said the new facility would help better meet the needs of veterans in the islands.

“We now serve more than 56,000 patients and maintain one of the fastest-growing health care systems in the country in terms of veterans served,” Robinson said. “The ALOHA clinic will be an expanded multiservice clinic. It is one part of our overall strategic vision to keep pace with our demand for services.”

The VA awarded the lease to locate the ALOHA project at Kalaeloa in April. Hunt Cos. will pay the upfront costs of construction, and the VA will pay for tenant improvements.

The El Paso, Texas-based real estate developer purchased much of the land in southwestern Oahu that was once Naval Air Station Barbers Point after the military closed it in the 1990s as part of a post-Cold War reorganization. The company has long been trying to build what it calls the Kalaeloa Mixed Use Community, and sees this project as a key part.

“We started on this journey about 15 years ago now, when we took over the majority of this former air base,” said Steve Colón, president of Hunt Cos.’ Development Division in Hawaii. “And our initial efforts were to what I described as turning the lights back on, breathing life back into the buildings, getting businesses back here, getting people back to live here.”

Colón said he hopes to build nearby housing for staff for the new clinic, and sees the ALOHA clinic as continuing the transformation of Kalaeloa into a mixed-use community.

“This project also is going to create a real nice boost for our local construction companies, our construction service providers, our unions. This project is going to provide critically needed construction jobs — so, a great shot the arm for our entire construction industry,” he said.