The Salvation Army in Hawai'i is expected to announce today that it has received a philanthropic gift of at least $60 million to build and operate a state-of-the-art Ray and Joan Kroc Community Center in Kapolei, a gift believed to be the largest awarded to a local nongovernmental agency.

A news conference is scheduled for 10 a.m. today.

While Salvation Army officials declined to confirm the news, sources familiar with the planning who did not want to be identified because they were not authorized to speak, said a center for Hawai'i would be announced. In addition, Gov. Linda Lingle's schedule released Friday shows she is participating in a news conference "regarding the new Ray and Joan Kroc Community Center-Hawai'i in the Kapolei-'Ewa area."

The center will provide a place for athletic, recreational, educational, artistic and cultural activities.

"The prospect of a Kroc Community Center being established in Hawai'i has the great potential of changing young lives and making a positive impact on those children and families for a lifetime," said Maj. David Hudson, the Salvation Army's Hawaiian and Pacific Islands Division commander.

Kapolei High principal Alvin Nagasako, who is familiar with the Hawai'i Kroc Center plans, agrees.

"It will provide venues to learn and display cultural and artistic opportunities, which we lack right now," Nagasako said. "This is a growing community, and the impact of such a center is it addresses a critical need for family recreation, in Kapolei and Leeward O'ahu.

"We will also have opportunities to create a healthy environment to support early childhood development through the center, which is much needed in our community," Nagasako added.

While the Salvation Army in Hawai'i requested $60 million in its bid proposal, it is expected to receive an award today that is larger. Even at $60 million, the gift is enormous.

"Sixty million dollars is going to blossom a hundredfold in the way it will touch our youth, our future and the keeping of a sense of family in our area," said George Yamamoto, a recently retired police captain and member of Neighborhood Board 34 (Makakilo-Kapolei-Honokai Hale), which supported the Kroc Center project.

"The center will provide jobs in the area, lessening the impact of traffic, and hopefully, its preschool will give our children a good head start," Yamamoto said. "We have Kamehameha Schools doing outreach out here but we welcome more services that provide opportunities to our keikis. It's really a fabulous project."

The center will be on 10 acres of Department of Hawaiian Home Lands' property near the agency's planned $12 million office building and site of the University of Hawai'i-West O'ahu campus.

The Advertiser reported in March 2005 that the lease agreement, in part, is for 65 years at $10 per year, with other considerations involved. The Kroc Center will feature separate areas for aquatic, athletic, performing arts and cultural events.

Among its components are a 25-meter pool for competitive swimming events; a college-standard-size gymnasium; a preschool for more than 100 children; an outdoor area dedicated to cultural arts that will include a pavilion for staging performances, such as hula; a performing arts theater with seating for about 1,000; a worship center; and a youth sports complex with baseball fields.

There also will be multipurpose rooms for meetings and social-services programs, a center for worship and fitness/training areas. The facility will cover more than 100,000 square feet.

Local officials expect to open the center in 2010, when the entire project is completed, rather than opening in phases.

Securing a 10-acre site in an underserved area in Leeward O'ahu satisfied a key element that allowed Hawai'i to compete for a share of the $1.6 billion bequeathed to the Salvation Army's national office by philanthropist Joan Kroc, widow of McDonald's Corp. founder Ray Kroc, for the specific purpose of building up to 50 neighborhood community centers nationwide.

Joan Kroc, who died in 2003, wanted designs of the new neighborhood centers to reflect the communities where they are built.

Planning for a cultural activities component at Hawai'i's Kroc Center included a canoe-building facility and hula mound, which are consistent with Kroc's vision. There's also no major theater to stage or showcase performing arts in West O'ahu, another component included in the Hawai'i proposal.

As the operations officer, Hudson worked with Mrs. Kroc from 2000 to 2002 on the development of the 12-acre Kroc Corps Center in San Diego before coming to Hawai'i in June 2004.

"Her dream was to see these centers across the country," Hudson told The Advertiser in December 2004, when he started organizing the Kroc Center bid.

The $1.6 billion gift to the Salvation Army is solely for the construction and operation of Kroc Centers and not for any programs. Kroc believed that communities where Kroc Centers are built must also share in the operational expenses.

Hawai'i reportedly submitted a proposal requesting $30 million for construction plus the matching endowment for operating costs. The amount may have changed, but when Hawai'i's center opens, only interest from the $30 million matching endowment can be used to pay for operating expenses and to provide scholarships to children to take advantage of programs at the center.

By March 2005, the Salvation Army in Hawai'i had secured support for its project from the Hawai'i Business Roundtable, made up of CEOs of the 50 largest local companies, as well as community and state leaders.

Kroc's gift was divided equally among the Salvation Army's four territories in the United States, with each territory receiving $375 million. As of yesterday, none of the finalists in any territory had been awarded a Kroc Center.

In addition to Hawai'i, the Salvation Army Western Territory finalists were Salem, Ore.; Concord, Calif.; San Francisco; Aurora, Colo.; Coeur d'Alene, Idaho; Long Beach, Calif.; and Phoenix South Mountain, Ariz.