A dedication ceremony today will celebrate the transformation of a former office building on the outskirts of Chinatown into a buzzing community center designed to give disadvantaged families and youth easier access to services — all under the same roof.

The Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Kukui Center, at the corner of North Kukui and 'A'ala streets, is home to eight nonprofit organizations that will work together to get services to more clients.

The tenants range from Family Promise of Hawai'i, which helps homeless families and whose space has showers, washers and dryers, a kitchen and a play area, to the Hawaii Foster Youth Coalition, which offers kids a place to hang out, play on computers and interact.

The center has been four years in the making. In 2005, the Kukui Children's Foundation bought the building with $3.5 million in federal money awarded by the city and started to look for tenants and for funds to renovate the building. The foundation operates the building.

The 18,000-square-foot building has had a massive makeover in the past year.

The center received $800,000 from the Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation and $775,000 from other foundations and businesses to help with costs. Hundreds of thousands of dollars were also donated in services and goods, including a new playground and furniture.

Judy Lind, executive director of the foundation, said the benefits of having nonprofits serving similar missions all in the same place are enormous. For families, she said, it will mean easier access to more services handled by nonprofits that are located just down the hall from each other. For the nonprofits, it means more collaboration — and innovation.

"By working together ... we'll become a great new community resource," Lind said.

The dedication ceremony is set for 4 p.m. today at the center.

U.S. Sen. Daniel K. Inouye, D-Hawai'i, and Mayor Mufi Hannemann are among the speakers.

At the center yesterday, last-minute touches were being made to the building and the nonprofits were preparing for an onslaught of guests. Most of the nonprofits in the building are already moved in and some, including Family Promise, have started bringing in clients.

The Family Promise site has places for storage, an area to watch television and relax and a family bathroom so that parents can give their little ones baths. There are also offices so clients can talk to social workers, and a computer lab so people can look for jobs or work on resumes.

In a common area at Family Promise, Santani Tatasi, 19, was playing with her 2-year-old son and his little friends. Tatasi said the Family Promise offices feel like home and added the Kukui Center makes it easier for her to get other sorts of services to help her get on her feet.

"It's really nice here," she said.