The demand for new Army and Air Force housing is driving a rebirth in the local construction industry.

Construction and renovation of more than 6,000 Army and Air Force homes on Oahu will dwarf the handful of high-profile construction projects now under way, including renovation of the Prince Kuhio federal building and courthouse downtown, construction of Walt Disney Co.’s Aulani Resort & Spa at Ko Olina and the Pacifica Honolulu condominium in Kakaako, said John White, executive director of Pacific Resource Partnership, an advocacy group for Hawaii’s unionized carpenters and contractors.

Until Honolulu’s $5.5 billion rail project — Hawaii’s largest public works project — breaks ground in March, White said, the $1.2 billion worth of military construction projects by Actus Lend Lease represents "a stabilizing factor for the economy right now."

Most of Actus’ construction will focus on Army housing projects ranging from Fort Shafter to Helemano Military Reservation and Schofield Barracks.

Construction could begin in the next two to five months, said Ron Johns, Actus’ senior construction manager. The work is expected to last through April 2015 and could be extended to 2019, Actus officials said.

Leroy Laney, a Hawaii Pacific University professor of economics and finance, called Actus’ plans "exactly what the Hawaii economy needs right now to get back on its feet. $1 billion is a big injection. And it’s a big injection in just the right place, construction."

Actus expects an overflow crowd of construction company representatives to show up this morning to learn how they can bid for a share of the upcoming subcontracting work.

It is an invitation that Lawrence Boyd, a labor economist with the University of Hawaii’s Center for Labor Education and Research, called "the best news I’ve heard in two years."

If it were not for the federal stimulus that provided about $100 million in construction money for the federal building and courthouse, "the situation would have been even worse," Boyd said. "The industry really hasn’t been propped up very much."

While Hawaii has seen a 6 percent drop in all jobs since 2008, Boyd said the construction industry took a 20 percent hit that translates into job losses for 38,000 construction workers.

Boyd calculated that Actus’ construction projects roughly equate to jobs for 7,200 construction workers.

A construction industry task force that was asked by the state Legislature to determine, among other things, the economic contributions of construction industry reported in November that it lacked money for a thorough analysis.

But in a report to the task force, Laney wrote that the industry is "far more volatile than any other major sector of the Hawaii economy" — a pattern that is "largely unavoidable."

Construction cycles here have typically seen seven or eight years of expansion since the mid-1980s, Laney wrote, followed by seven or eight years of contraction.

Actus has built more than $1.5 billion worth of Army and Air Force housing projects in Hawaii since 2005.

Kong Enterprises Inc., which specializes in demolition and soil- and earth-moving, did not bid on any of Actus’ previous subcontracts when times were good, said company President Richard Kong Jr.

"We (were) too busy," he said.

But after laying off about 25 employees, Kong is now down to 15 workers and welcomes the chance at steady, reliable work over the next few years to augment his current projects.

Since he joined his father’s construction company in 1983, Kong has been through two recessions, "but this has been the biggest and the longest," he said.

If Kong’s company gets an Actus subcontract, the work would represent about two-thirds of Kong’s business, and he would need to rehire about 10 workers.

"We’re ready," Kong said.

Shontaz Naweli and her husband, Osborn, run Ozzy’s Construction Inc. from their home in Waimanalo.

They typically serve as the general contractor for individual clients wanting to build so-called "packaged" homes, but would welcome the chance to do rough carpentry, finish work or millwork for any of Actus’ projects.

They did not bid on Actus’ subcontracts in the past "because it’s intimidating when you go up against these huge companies," Shontaz Naweli said.

Like Kong Enterprises, however, Naweli hopes Ozzy’s Construction’s designation as a Hawaiian-owned company gives them an edge over bigger companies.

So she told her husband they need to go to this morning’s presentation.

"I’m not afraid to start anything new," she said. "We should just try."

Actus has adhered to the project labor agreements it signed to maintain union wages and benefits for workers, said White of Pacific Resource Partnership.

"They have a good relationship with the carpenters union," White said. "They’ve been good community members, and they provided lots of jobs for our unionized contractors and our members. From the industry’s perspective, their work in military housing construction prevented a bad recession from being even worse."

Actus had hoped to attract 100 potential subcontractors to this morning’s presentation but already had more than 200 signed up.

So the company is expecting a stand-room-only crowd, which company officials welcome.

"We wanted to reach out to everybody and tell them about the opportunities coming up," said Actus’ Johns. "There’s just that much work going on."