WAIKOLOA, Hawai'i — A new residential project will add 1,200 affordable homes for West Hawai'i residents and increase the size of Waikoloa Village by 50 percent.

The Kamakoa at Waikoloa project breaks ground Saturday. It will be built on 279 acres of county-owned land.

Hawai'i County Planning Director Chris Yuen says West Hawai'i is short up to 1,000 workers, in part because there's no housing for them.

About two-thirds of the units will be for sale at prices affordable to people earning up to 140 percent of the Big Island median income. The remainder of the units will be for rent.

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