Maui County has completed the $3.8 million purchase of the David K. Trask Jr. building next to the county’s Kalana O Maui building in Wailuku, as part of ongoing efforts to cut millions of dollars it pays each year for rent, the county said Tuesday.

The sale of the two-story building, funded by an estimated increase in the transient accommodation tax, was completed on Monday.

“The county spends more than $2 million each year for rent to house our increasing services in buildings it does not own,” Mayor Richard Bissen said in a news release. “This acquisition will help us reduce rent paid and allow us to purchase a building located right next door to Kalana O Maui.”

The building at 2145 Kaohu St. will continue to hold the county Department of Environmental Management administration along with noncounty tenants, the Hawai’i Government Employees Association and Berding & Weil law offices.

The county’s Community Development Block Grant employees, along with some Parks and Recreation Department staff who have to temporarily move due to War Memorial Complex upgrades, will soon join the building.

Constructed in 1979, the building is 15,846 square feet on a 16,255-square-foot lot, according to the news release.

Former owner HGEA had expressed a desire to sell the property to the county, and the nonprofit’s board of directors officially agreed to sell on May 22. The Maui County Council in May voted unanimously to adopt a resolution approving the sale, which is required by law for real property purchases that exceed $250,000.

Fiscal year 2022 data shows that the county paid approximately $2.4 million in rent, about $850,000 less than fiscal year 2021 rent when county offices were moved to properties it recently acquired.