PBS Hawaii began construction Monday on its new Honolulu headquarters in Kalihi, which will be called the Clarence T.C. Ching Campus.
The nonprofit held a small groundbreaking ceremony Monday morning at the site of its future home at 315 Sand island Access Road, which was most recently occupied by American Electric and KHNL and KFVE television.
“This will be a 21st-century building for a 21st-century Hawaii,” Leslie Wilcox, president and CEO of PBS Hawaii, said in a statement. “Our team has spent a great deal of time on the technology design, which will further help us create, communicate and collaborate.”
Construction on the Clarence T.C. Ching Campus is expected to finish in early 2016.
Honolulu’s Group 70 International is the architect on the project, while Honolulu-based Allied Builders System is the general contractor.
Allied will work with Atlanta-based media integration firm TI Broadcast Solutions Group for the project’s specialized technology aspects.
The existing one-story structure will be renovated and expanded to include a second story, and will house a main television studio, an emergency broadcast enter and a media innovation center for young journalists in the station’s flagship statewide student news initiative, Hiki No.
The public television station, which has an expiring lease with the University of Hawaii at Manoa, has raised more than 75 percent of its $30 million capital campaign goal.