KAILUA, KONA, Hawai'i — Kaiser Permanente's Kona Clinic may have a new home in a few years.

The recent purchase of a 9.9-acre parcel on the mauka side of Queen Ka'ahumanu Highway across from Honokohau Harbor in the West Hawaii Business Park will enable the state's largest health maintenance organization to expand its facilities and allow for future population growth, said Dr. Daryl Kurozawa, Hawaii Permanente Medical Group's associate medical director for the neighbor islands.

"Kaiser has been growing in Kona for years," he said. "We're outgrowing our current space, so we needed more land and another facility to accommodate that growth."

The Kailua, Kona clinic began seeing patients in 1987 and is at an office complex off Hualalai Road. Its lease will expire in 2012.

While Kurozawa would not say what Kaiser paid for the land, he confirmed the purchase had been in the works for at least six months. He estimated the new clinic would be open in 2012 or 2013.

The purchased property houses ancestral remains, but there is an approved burial treatment plan in place, Kurozawa said.

"We've gotten the descendants involved early, from the very start of the process," he said. "Both parties feel comfortable with the future."

The planning process will involve Kaiser physicians, staff and building planners along with patient representatives. Kurozawa said he was not sure how much the clinic would cost to build, however, the money is part of Kaiser's operating budget.

"We're not going to raise rates in Kona to build a clinic," he said. "The clinic has been on the planning books for as long as I've been here, at least six years."

The clinic now provides primary care, obstetrics and gynecology, optometry, pediatrics and surgery. There are also 22 specialists from O'ahu who visit patients regularly on the Big Island.

As the population grows, physician services will also increase, Kurozawa said.

"We've been looking for a place for 10 years now, so obviously we're excited and can't wait to move forward," he said.