Construction will start next year on a two-story community center at Maryknoll School in lower Manoa designed to be a gymnasium and auditorium during the day and neighborhood gathering place at night.

The building, set to feature an 85-stall underground parking lot, will be the first new construction at the campus on Dole Street in nearly three decades and is part of a wider effort to upgrade its facilities. Maryknoll wants to raise $12 million to build the center and has collected $8 million so far.

"I see it as a seven-day facility," said Mike Baker, president of Maryknoll School. "It will give us a place to have assemblies and host liturgical celebrations. It will be a reasonably well-equipped gymnasium.

"And we hope that we can outreach into our community."

About 1,400 students attend Maryknoll, a Catholic kindergarten through 12th-grade school founded in 1927.

Despite its size, the school has no auditorium or gymnasium — a source of frustration over the years.

"We have no gathering spot," Baker said. "We're the only major school on the island that doesn't have a gym." And when the school celebrates holidays or graduation, students and teachers are forced to gather off campus.

The school has filed for a conditional use permit and plans to hold a public meeting on the project.

A groundbreaking is expected in early 2007, and construction is expected to take between 12 and 14 months.

Baker said the community center will "pick up the lines of Sacred Heart Church" and be sensitive to the look of the neighborhood.

To build the center, Maryknoll will tear down two apartment buildings adjacent to the school that were purchased in the late 1990s.

One has nine units, seven of which are occupied. The second walk-up is being used by the school as administrative offices. The school is renting to the apartment's tenants on a month-to-month basis.

"They've all been told they'll have to relocate," Baker said, adding the church is talking to the residents and plans to help them find new homes.

The building will also be built on a 78-stall parking lot.

Nadine Nishioka, chairwoman of the Manoa Neighborhood Board, said area residents are concerned the community center will worsen traffic and parking in the neighborhood. "There definitely needs to be some type of improvement for that school," she said. "But there are concerns."

She encouraged the school to hold a public forum to address questions.

She also said residents need to be assured the community center does not attract a criminal element, with people hanging around well after dark.

Reach Mary Vorsino at mvorsino@honoluluadvertiser.com.