Chaminade University officials will announce today a $5 million grant from the Clarence T.C. Ching Foundation, which will serve to complete refurbishments to the school's more than 80-year-old administration building.

The gift caps an eight-year effort by university officials to raise about $61 million to pay for major renovation and expansion of its buildings constructed in the 1920s.

"Chaminade has had a wonderful and long relationship with the Ching Foundation," said Sue Wesselkamper, president of the small Catholic college.

"We're thrilled that this year we were able to cap off a $61 million transformation campaign. That's extraordinary for a school our size," Wesselkamper said.

The grant will fund the remaining renovations to Chaminade's administration building, formerly known as Freitas Hall. The building, overlooking Kaimuki and Diamond Head, is the centerpiece of five historic buildings that formed the original campus now housing Saint Louis School, the Marianist Center of Hawai'i and Chaminade University.

Renovations will be made to the university's admissions, business, financial aid, records, personnel and other administrative offices housed in Freitas Hall.

Also today, the university will rename the building the Clarence T.C. Ching Hall.

"This is something that the family wanted to do," R. Stevens Gilley, executive director of the Ching Foundation, said about the gift.

The $135 million foundation is the state's third-largest charitable foundation. It was founded in 1967 by Ching, a local developer who built the Kukui Gardens housing complex, which was recently sold for $131 million.

Earlier this summer, the foundation awarded Catholic Charities and the University of Hawai'i's athletics programs similar grants of $5 million, for a total of $15 million in educational support.

Chaminade "has been very involved in Kukui Gardens from the very start. It's a wonderful university and we're proud to do it," Gilley said.

The grant comes after university officials recently discovered a severe termite infestation in Freitas Hall.

"A week ago, they saw some water leaking from the roof and found that the whole front side of the building is filled with termites," he said.

"The grant certainly is very timely," he said.

In 2006, the university completed refurbishment to about 13,300 square feet of the mauka side of Freitas Hall, which is now the Loo Student Center and Loo Theater.

The grant from the Ching Foundation will help complete remaining refurbishment to the makai side of the building, which houses administrative offices across three floors. In all, the grant will revitalize about 15,000 square feet.

"These renovations will provide improved services to our students, increased sustainability, upgraded infrastructure and flexible floor plans. Those are the four really exciting things for us. It will allow this to be a wonderful building for Chaminade, but also something the Ching Foundation can have in memory of Clarence T.C. Ching," said Daniel Gilmore, vice president of finance and facilities at Chaminade.

Since 2000, the university has been raising money to renovate its historic buildings, equip classrooms, upgrade laboratories and increase research space.

This year, the university also celebrated a new $14.8 million library named after the Sullivan family, the founders of Foodland, who made significant donations to help build it.