HILO — A 100-bed skilled-nursing home expected to employ 150 people could be opened in Hilo late next year, said the project manager for the proposed $18.7 million development.

"We're pretty confident that we'll be able to get it built," Greg Pyle of Regency Pacific Inc. said in a telephone interview Wednesday.

The single-story "Hilo Maluhia" facility would be located off Kaumana Drive on a little more than 17 acres of vacant land the Washington-based company bought in 2007, a Regency Pacific executive previously told the Tribune-Herald.

The five adjacent parcels are located at 516 Kaumana Drive and abut Luana Way, Pyle said.

"I think the benefits are multiple to the community," he said of a facility that would provide more long-term-care beds while reducing the strain on acute-care beds.

Slightly more than 95 percent of Hawaii's nursing home beds were filled in 2007, according to www.statehealthfacts.org, a Web site run by the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation.

"The numbers really speak for themselves," Pyle said, adding Hawaii County's nursing home occupancy rate was 96 percent in 2006. "There's a very strong need in the Hilo community."

The facility also will feature a swimming pool and food services, he said.

"It will have a full-service kitchen and a registered dietitian to care for the specific needs of the elderly population," he said.

Pyle estimated the project will create between 150 and 160 permanent jobs.

"Our number one source of staffing will be the local population," he said.

Regency Pacific, which operates a 128-unit assisted-living center in Kailua, Kona, and two other facilities on Kauai, also has been talking with University of Hawaii-Hilo administrators to have UHH nursing students train at its Hilo home, Pyle said.

"We're definitely looking forward to joining the Hilo community," he said, noting construction is expected to last 16 to 20 months.

But before that may happen, Regency Pacific first needs the state Department of Health to determine there's a need for another Hilo nursing home.

"We have taken this one through all the various committees, and we're working on the final determination now," Ron Terry, administrator of the DOH's State Health Planning and Development Agency, said of Regency Pacific's certificate of need application.

Terry declined to estimate when that might occur.

Regency Pacific's original plans called for a $40 million project that was to include 40 single-family cottages and a 60-bed assisted-living facility.

Future expansion could include a West Hawaii nursing home that would be smaller than the proposed Hilo version, Pyle said.

According to its Web site, Regency Pacific has served more than 200,000 seniors during the 40-plus years it has been in operation.

It currently runs senior facilities in Hawaii, California, Washington, Oregon and Idaho.