Gov. David Ige joined University of Hawaii officials and legislators Monday to celebrate the groundbreaking for a long-awaited administration building at UH West Oahu that will also house classrooms and laboratories for health care programs at the Kapolei campus.

The $36 million facility — billed as the Allied Health/Administration building — will house the university’s allied health, community health, health information management, long-term care and biology programs. The two-story, 43,000-square-foot building will be the sixth building on the campus and is scheduled to be completed in 2018.

This is “the fifth year of West Oahu’s operations at this beautiful facility, but unfortunately the five buildings in five years is not enough,” UH President David Lassner said in opening remarks.

He said original plans called for an initial campus with six buildings, including an administration building. Administrators have had to lease space off campus in the meantime. The Legislature provided funding to combine an administration building with expanded space for health programs.

“It’s something that the community has wanted for such a long time, and I’m really proud of being able to be part of this proceeding … to really move the campus forward to better serve the needs of West Oahu,” said Ige, who served as chairman of the Senate Ways and Means Committee when the funding was approved.

UH said the expansion was data-driven based on population growth and workforce needs.

“We do recognize the need for us to contribute to adapting to new ways, the changing ways of the health care world, and to create a new workforce,” said interim Chancellor Doris Ching.

She added, “It is allied health and administration, but everybody on this campus will benefit from this facility. … We are just bursting, and we just don’t have enough classrooms to schedule all of the courses that we want to schedule so that our students can succeed and they can graduate on time.”

The campus, which serves about 2,900 students, has experienced annual increases in enrollment since opening in 2012. Established in 1976, the college previously operated out of portables next to Leeward Community College.