The first phase of a $135 million upgrade to Hawaii’s largest public housing complex is nearing completion, and a group of units has become available for rent to low-income families.

An affiliate of Michaels Development Co., the firm doing the renovations, began accepting applications Monday for 58 units with one to three bedrooms renting for $1,158 to $1,607 a month at The Towers at Kuhio Park.

About 50 people filled out applications Monday for the apartments at the Kalihi complex formerly known as Kuhio Park Terrace, according to officials with the Michaels affiliate, Interstate Realty Management Co.

Helen Welle Tarry, an unemployed teacher who moved to Oahu last month from Hawaii island after leaving Utah in February, filled out an application and hopes to find affordable housing along with a teaching-related job.

“My goal is to get a job and rent,” she said. “I want long-term rent.”

Welle Tarry is living with her husband, daughter and father-in-law at a friend’s home close to the Towers, but she thought a two-bedroom unit for $1,390 a month might be too much.

Stacie Brach, district property manager for Interstate Realty, said she expects it will take around 200 applicants to fill the 58 units, because units are restricted to certain family sizes and incomes.

One-bedroom units may house up to three people, and are available to families with annual incomes between $34,740 and $55,620.

Three-bedroom units may house up to seven people, and are available to families with annual incomes between $48,210 and $76,680.

Income restrictions are tied to the units because Michaels used low-income housing tax credits to finance part of the renovation work. The maximum income levels are equivalent to 60 percent of Oahu’s median income.

Other units at the Towers are limited to tenants earning between 30 and 80 percent of the median income, according to the Hawaii Public Housing Authority.

Brach said the initial interest on Monday was good. “Today was the launch,” she said. “We’ve had a really nice response.”

The group of apartments available for rent are a product of the public-private partnership arranged to finance renovations averaging $95,000 per unit in the towers that were built in 1963 and are badly deteriorating under state ownership and management.

Under the arrangement, New Jersey-based Michaels and a partner, Seattle-based Vitus Group, acquired ownership of the buildings and leased the land from the state for 65 years. The new owners financed the renovation work through government and private sources, and collect rent from tenants as well as subsidies from the Public Housing Authority.

The vast majority of the 572 units in the twin 16-story towers have remained occupied during construction and are leased under a Public Housing Authority program or under a federal Section 8 housing voucher program. But 58 units in the top three floors of one tower were needed to accommodate residents while their units were upgraded.

These so-called hotel units were renovated first, and have housed residents for six to 12 weeks while their apartments underwent work that included enlarging living rooms by enclosing lanais, and overhauling kitchens with new appliances, cabinets, counters and more space. New lighting, plumbing, flooring and bathroom fixtures also were included.

The hotel units were freed up through existing vacancies due to some units being uninhabitable, while about 20 tenants were relocated to other public housing projects.

Now that the work on the towers is nearing completion, the hotel units need to be rented.

Monika Mordasini, vice president of development for Michaels, said she expects an initial 19 units in the hotel group to be ready for occupancy in early November, with the rest by the end of the year.

Work on Kuhio Park Terrace began in May 2011. A future phase that could span 10 years includes demolishing 176 low-rise apartments that are part of the housing complex and the Kuhio Homes community built in 1953, and replacing them with 276 rentals at affordable and market-level prices.