The Hale Koa Hotel has started a $50-million renovation project, the biggest construction job at the Waikiki beachfront military hotel in more than a decade.

The project includes the upgrade to 420 guest rooms in the Ilima Tower, the Banyan Tree Showroom, main lobby and main kitchen, the hotel announced.

John Jefferis, Hale Koa Hotel general manager, said the 817-room hotel will continue to serve guests in the Ilima Tower during the renovation, which will involve the closure of only a few floors at a time. The Ilima work is expected to be completed in August 2008.

The entire project is to be finished by March 2009. The Maile Tower, built in 1995, will not be affected.

The contractor is Kiewit Building Group of Honolulu.

This is the first major renovation of the hotel and grounds since it opened in 1975. The hotel is owned by the U.S. government and is one of only four Armed Forces Recreation Centers in the world, operated for military personnel and their families.

Kiewit Building Group, a subsidiary of Peter Kiewit Sons' Inc. of Omaha, Neb., is one of Hawaii's largest general contractors and is currently building the Trump International Hotel and Tower at Waikiki Beach Walk, in a joint venture with AC Kobayashi.