KAHULUI – Officials broke ground 14 months behind schedule Friday for construction of Kahului Airport’s $340 million, three-level consolidated rental car facility.

The building will house more than a dozen rental car companies and provide parking space for nearly 3,800 rental cars and 700 employees.

The “earth-friendly” building will include offices, customer service counters, ready and return rental car spaces, quick-turn-around areas and fuel and carwash facilities to service a Maui car rental fleet in the thousands.

During a ground-breaking ceremony, state Department of Transportation Director Ford Fuchigami said the facility with 4,500 parking stalls overall will serve Maui’s burgeoning demand for rental cars.

Already, cars rented from Kahului Airport amount to 2,200 per day, double the 1,100 rented on Oahu, he said. Maui could see the number of car rentals rise to 5,000 per day, he added.

And, more change is coming.

Now, 25 buses make an average of 85 trips an hour to take passengers between the terminal and rental car sites, but eventually the shuttle buses will be replaced by an electric tram running on a rail system and, eventually, powered by solar energy, officials said.

“The train’s classic appearance is designed to reflect the Valley Isle’s plantation roots,” an announcement said.

Gov. David Ige attended the project’s blessing and praised its “green” renewable energy and water features.

“We have been talking about this project for far too many years,” Ige said. “We know how important this is here on Maui.”

Maui’s growing visitor industry needs a the new car rental facility, especially when it’s part of the first impression for arriving tourists.

“We want to accommodate for future growth on Maui,” Ige said.

A $2.9 million water feature with “cascading waterfalls and shimmering pools” will be built next to the rental car facility, the Department of Transportation said. It will serve as an irrigation reservoir and contain nearly 140,000 gallons of nonpotable water, which will be filtered to eliminate particles and prevent system clogging.

The rental car facility will be financed by income generated by a $4.50-per-day customer facility charge, which is paid by rental car company customers and not by taxpayers. (The charge applies only to cars rented on airport property, not those companies located offsite.)

The car rental building, dubbed “Conrac” for consolidated rent-a-car facility, will be located on the southwest side of the airport. It will be connected with the Airport Access Road, the second phase of which remains under construction. That phase will take the access road from Hana Highway to the Airport Loop Road, relieving traffic congestion in the area, including on Dairy Road.

Central Maui Sen. Gil Keith-Agaran said: “Maui accounts for 35 percent of car rental revenues statewide, so the convenience and efficiencies provided by this Conrac will support our visitor industry . . . Already, 70 percent of our economy, tourism jobs will play a bigger part with the closure of Maui’s sugar operations.”

West and South Maui Sen. Roz Baker said she was pleased to see the project underway.

“The Conrac will not only be convenient and aesthetically pleasing, but more importantly, environmentally friendly,” she said.

The project is estimated to take 3 1/2 years to complete.

The Maui rental car facility is part of the state’s $2.7 billion airports modernization program.

The facility is more than a year behind schedule because of a bid protest, Fuchigami acknowledged.

In 2013, a department official said project construction could begin in February 2014, with work completed near the end of 2015.

The state initially awarded the project to Nan Inc. of Honolulu, but the bid award was rescinded and the contract awarded to Hawaiian Dredging Construction Co. Nan Inc. submitted a bid protest.

Hawaiian Dredging serves as the lead contractor. The design team is led by Demattei Wong Architects.

The project is expected to generate more than 500 jobs.

* Melissa Tanji can be reached at mtanji@mauinews.com.