Maryknoll School has received a $3 million donation to build a gymnasium and community center scheduled to be ready in the spring.

Yesterday's gift by the Clarence T.C. Ching Foundation came as the complex's estimated price has risen to $21 million from $16 million a year ago, mostly because of construction costs, said Maryknoll President Perry Martin.

The Catholic school is close to meeting a $12 million fundraising goal for the project, which is set to be completed in May or June, Martin said.

“;We are very, very close to the total amount. We are just short but we have pledges out,”; Martin said. “;We are in pretty good shape.”;

The 35,000-square-foot complex, whose gym will be named the Clarence T.C. Ching Gymnasium, will have an NBA regulation basketball court that converts into two high school basketball courts or three volleyball courts.

Being built on a nearly four-acre site bordered by Wilder Avenue, Dole and Alexander streets, and Halekula Way, it will hold theater performances and house an athletic department with a weight room, lockers and two multipurpose classrooms, seat 1,000 people and have 85 underground parking stalls.

With the complex, the school will no longer have to bus sports teams to rented facilities off campus.

The city granted Maryknoll a conditional use permit for the complex last year, settling a challenge by neighbors who had appealed a previous city approval of the use of the site over concerns about increased traffic.

The school agreed to give the city reports about events held at the complex, including hours and attendance and designate a school official to address possible community concerns about the complex.

The complex will be primarily for student and church use, Martin said.

“;Right now, we have a conditional use permit that keeps us away from Sundays and late nights, and we need to honor that,”; he said. “;But I think in the future we will be able to create situations where people can lease it and use it.”;