The first group of tenants yesterday began moving into a new affordable rental housing project on the Big Island that is slated to have 306 units built over the next year.

Pacific Housing Advisors is developing the $65 million project called Lokahi Apartments in Kailua, Kona.

The first building, with 30 units, opened yesterday, and the developer expects to complete about one building a month and finish construction by the end of next year.

Construction began in December 2008 on the project, which is financed by state and federal affordable housing tax credits, tax-exempt bonds, a loan from the state's Hawai'i Housing Finance Development Corp. and Citibank.

Monthly rental rates will range from $320 to $833 for the apartments, ranging from studios to two-bedroom units. Prospective residents may not earn more than 60 percent of the area median income, representing $28,380 for a single person or $40,500 for a family of four, though 17 units will be reserved for residents earning half that much.

Lokahi Apartments is being developed in Lower Palisades, two miles south of the Kona International Airport, by Ho'olehua Housing, an affiliate of related Seattle-based firms Allied Pacific Development and Pacific Housing Advisors.

The project is the first new rental housing project built in the past three years in an area where the projected need for similarly priced affordable rentals was at 2,585 households in 2007, according to a final environmental assessment filed by the developer in January.

The project is being financed in part with $33.5 million in bonds floated by the Hawai'i Housing Finance and Development Corp., a $9.75 million loan from the state agency and proceeds from the sale of state and federal affordable housing tax credits.