Work is set to begin next month at a three-acre site in lower Makakilo for Easter Seals Hawai'i's largest service center in the state.

A variety of programs and services for infants, youths and adults with disabilities and other special needs will be available out of the $7 million Makakilo site when it is completed in summer 2008, Howell said. The nonprofit expects to serve 500 people from the first day it opens, although not all will be served in the facility itself, he said. There will be a staff of about 40.

Easter Seals expanded its services in the area in response to a request by the state Health Department, he said. The agency already has programs scattered throughout West O'ahu.

About 2,800 feet of space is being leased out of the Don Quijote site in Waipahu. The site has grown from 50 to 300 clients in three years, Howell said. Easter Seals will continue to run the Waipahu site when the Makakilo facility opens, he said. Adult programs being run out of Waipahu will move to Makakilo.

New programs will include after-school services for special needs children as well services for adults similar to an existing program on Renton Road in 'Ewa, which is full, Howell said.

A major focus will be development of programs designed for children with various forms of autism, Howell said.

About 80 percent of the services are being funded by the Health Department.

"We have seen a dramatic increase in the demand for these community-based services in areas around Waipahu and the Wai'anae Coast," state Health Director Dr. Chiyome Fukino said in a statement. "Easter Seals is one example of over 50 providers who serve 3,500 individuals with development disabilities statewide."

Entrance to the facility will be off an extension to Palailai Street that's to be built by the Schuler Division of D.R. Horton Homes, which is developing the 475-home Kahiwelo subdivision that lies to the north and east.

Putting its main entrance off Palailai rather than Makakilo Drive costs Easter Seals more money, "but it is absolutely the right thing to do for the community," Howell said.

The agency is seeking a conditional use permit for a height variance from the city in order to put up a building that will go up to about 40 feet. A public hearing has yet to be scheduled. The existing limits are 25 feet on one section, 30 feet on the other.

Howell said the profile of the building will be shielded with bougainvillea hedges and actually have a lower height profile than the church next door. "The reality is you probably won't even see the building (from Makakilo Drive) as you're sitting in your car," Howell said.

Easter Seals bought the Makakilo property from the former Estate of James Campbell for $520,000 in 2004, Howell said.

No other Easter Seals facility in Hawai'i is even half the size of the planned Makakilo site. The statewide office will remain in Makiki, at a Green Street facility that has 9,000 square feet of space. All of the agency's other facilities are between 1,000 and 2,500 square feet, Howell said.