City officials broke ground Thursday for a three-story, 58-unit modular housing project in the West Loch section of Ewa for lower-income individuals and couples.

The prefabricated structures for the state’s first “stacked” modular complex are expected to arrive at Honolulu docks in December and the units available for rent in April, Mayor Kirk Caldwell said.

“We’ve had one-story modular housing … but never stacked housing,” Caldwell said.

Modular construction speeds up delivery 30%-50%, city officials said.

Only couples and individuals making at or below 50% of area median income will be eligible to rent the studio units, each of which will have their own kitchens and bathrooms. Annual AMI numbers are calculated annually by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. For a single person, 50% AMI is currently about $42,000 a year.

“It will provide an opportunity for those who otherwise wouldn’t find a place to live, a place to live,” Caldwell said.

The project has a price tag of $18 million — $10 million for the structures and $8 million for site work. The project is on 1.43 acres of city-owned land sandwiched between Asing Community Park and the city-sponsored West Loch Elderly Village apartment complex.

The complex will consist of eight modules. In addition to the apartment units, the facility will have a commercial kitchen, office, dining room and a stairwell. There will be 34 parking stalls at the beginning, while others may be added later.

Canadian-based Horizon North is manufacturing the structures. Vancouver, British Columbia, put up 606 of the company’s modular units at 10 locations in 2018, city Land Management Director Sandra Pfund said. Like Honolulu, Vancouver has a critical shortage of affordable housing units, she said.

The ones purchased by the city have been modified by local contractor G70 to meet Hawaii’s weather and climate conditions, Pfund said.

General contractor T. Iida Contracting Ltd. is tasked with site work and also will help Horizon North fabricate and deliver the components when they arrive on-island, city officials said.