WAILUKU — The Community Clinic of Maui fast is approaching its goal to remodel the former Ooka Super Market starting this fall to turn it into a modern, 36,000-square-foot health-care facility on Main Street, according to The Maui News.

On Monday, Gov. Linda Lingle announced the release of more than $1.3 million in state funding to help the nonprofit with its roughly $14 million project, which has been at least six years in the making, said Community Clinic of Maui Executive Director Dana Alonzo-Howeth.

The Community Clinic of Maui is one of three health centers in the state to receive state funding: $6 million overall in grants-in-aid for capital improvement upgrades and new construction for the three facilities. The Waianae Coast Comprehensive Health Center on Oahu will get $3.7 million, while the Bay Clinic in Hilo will receive $1 million.

The main clinic on Lono Street in Kahului and its satellite clinics in Lahaina and Wailuku served 7,500 uninsured and low-income Maui residents last year, Alonzo-Howeth said. The Community Clinic of Maui is one of 14 similar independent health-care centers that help uninsured patients throughout Hawaii with the assistance of state and federal funds.

According to Lingle's office, the Maui clinic has provided comprehensive health-care services, including behavioral-health and substance-abuse treatment, to uninsured, underinsured, Medicaid/QUEST and Medicare patients for 12 years.

With the grant-in-aid money approved by the Legislature, the clinic has secured almost $9 million in federal, state, county and private funds to move forward with the remodeling project in Wailuku in late fall, Alonzo-Howeth said.

That upgraded facility will consolidate all of the clinic's administrative offices along with its health-care clinic and a nutrition center.

However, Alonzo-Howeth said, the clinic still must raise about $4.5 million from public donors to complete the project, which is scheduled to break ground shortly after September. That's when the clinic is expected to secure Maui County construction permits and a permanent loan from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Clinic officials plan to kick off a fundraising campaign in the next two months.

"Really, the only missing piece will be this fund-development drive," Alonzo-Howeth said.

The Kahului clinic is considered outdated and too small. Its awning is fading, and the waiting room was nearly full Monday afternoon. Alonzo-Howeth said the new Wailuku clinic will be able to help more patients.

The Kahului clinic will close once the new facility is completed, but the other two satellite offices will remain open, she said. Once ground is broken, Alonzo-Howeth said general contractor Arita Poulson LLC will have 240 days to renovate the former landmark grocery store.

Ooka Super Market closed its doors last June to make way for the clinic, said John Messina of the state Department of Health. The store was near the corner of Main Street and Central Avenue for 49 years.

Instead of keeping the store open, the Ooka family chose to focus on developing Lokenani Hale, a publicly financed, senior assisted-living complex across the street from the former store.

Alonzo-Howeth said the clinic purchased the grocery building in 2002.

The clinic had the beige market gutted last year. Since then, it's remained boarded up, and the parking lot has been closed off with orange snow fencing.

The Community Clinic of Maui staff has been working hard for years to put together plans, paperwork and financing for the new facility.

"We are just so excited to begin construction," Alonzo-Howeth said.

Chris Hamilton can be reached at chamilton@mauinews.com. Additional Maui News stories are posted online at www.mauinews.com