A 50-year-old affordable rental home complex in Moanalua received a blessing Thursday following the addition of nearly 500 new midprice homes.

The owner of Moanalua Hillside Apartments held the blessing as part of a grand-opening ceremony for the $120 million project, which took three years to construct while overcoming challenges that included partial City Council opposition over traffic concerns and a city water system tunnel below the property.

“The path to revitalizing the Moanalua Hillside Apartments community and adding 491 workforce rental units has been challenging,” said Michele Aronson, a senior vice president of Douglas Emmett Inc. “Quite honestly, there were times where I wasn’t quite sure we were going to get across the goal line.”

Four new eight-story buildings were added to the existing community of 700 apartments spread over 26 acres in 25 buildings four or six stories high behind Kaiser Permanente Moanalua Medical Center.

Construction started in 2016, and the first building was finished at the end of 2017. The last building, which includes a new second pool and a fitness center, was finished in December.

The expansion is helping satisfy demand for moderate-price housing, especially from military personnel stationed around Pearl Harbor, Kaiser employees and others.

Moanalua Hillside community manager Joni Vejsin said 185 units are available which she expects will become occupied over the next seven to nine months.

Monthly rents range from $1,545 to $2,795 for studios to two-bedroom units. These rates are considered by federal Department of Housing and Urban Development standards to be affordable for households earning 80 to 120 percent of Honolulu’s median income.

Karen Tano, 65, moved to Moanalua Hillside 3-1/2 years ago from Aiea and considers the community a fine place to live. “I have no complaints,” the semiretired legal secretary said. “I do love this place.”

Marquis Ingram, a 29-year-old Navy sailor, moved into one of the older apartments two years ago and appreciates the new fitness center and pool. “It’s like 1,000 times better than what it used to be,” he said of the fitness center. “This new pool is great. The old pool was kind of raggedy.”

Mayor Kirk Caldwell said Moanalua Hillside’s expansion will help keep residents from having to move away in search of affordable housing.

“We lose our soul every time someone who’s from here leaves,” he said.

Moanalua Hillside was built in 1968 by local development firm Loyalty Enterprises as affordable housing. HUD helped finance construction, and in return tenants had to meet income restrictions.

In its early years the community had been described as fairly unattractive in part because of how the hollow-tile buildings were laid out like dominoes. Over time, improvements were made to the property, and income restrictions expired.

Real estate investment trust Essex Fidelity I Corp. bought the complex in 2001 for $42 million and sold it a year later to a partnership for $44 million. The partnership, which included investment firm Carmel Partners, spent about $10 million on upgrades that included additions of a sand volleyball court, a putting green and apartment renovations.

California-based Douglas Emmett bought the property in 2005 for $109 million.