PROVIDENCE — As they’ve done many times already, and as they’ll continue to do in the months to come, journeyman ironworker Steve Alix and his colleague Jerome Cook on Tuesday carefully hooked a steel beam to a crane, then watched as the crane lifted the steel into place on top of the new health lab being built in the Jewelry District here.
A few things made this particular length of steel stand above all the others. It was decorated with a tree and the signatures of dozens of fellow union workers — plus politicians who came out to watch it go up. And when the beam stood atop what they’re calling PVD Labs at 150 Richmond St., it was said to be the highest point in a development that many policymakers hope will play a high-profile role in Rhode Island’s future economy.
Construction of the seven-story PVD Labs is far from being done. In fact, not even the steel work is complete.
But a so-called “topping off” ceremony on Tuesday — the tree is part of that construction tradition — served as an opportunity to take stock of how far the state has come since a ceremonial groundbreaking in October 2022.
The groundbreaking was followed by a 10-month interregnum, but then actual work got started and the building started to rise. The building is expected to be done by late summer 2025, presumably with a ribbon-cutting to complete the construction ceremony trifecta. In the meantime, people like Alix and Cook have more actual, not ceremonial, work to do. Not that they mind.
“It’s a good job,” Alix said before getting back to his work as the politicians dispersed from a heated tent where a nearly hourlong speaking program had taken place.
The new building is being developed by science-focused developer Ancora L&G. Part of the building will be the new home of Rhode Island’s state health lab, a key priority for the Department of Health for years. The state will own its portion of the building, akin to owning a condo in a larger development. Ancora will lease out the other portion, about 120,000 square feet, to life sciences tenants. Brown University is signing on as an anchor.
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The state health lab portion is expected to cost about $98 million, with $82 million funded by a U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention grant, $11.5 million in capital funds, and $4.5 million in other sources, according to the state.
“We have momentum like we’ve never seen before,” Governor Dan McKee said at the speaking program.
Much has changed in the year and a half since officials first broke ground on the project, especially in the life sciences industry and especially in the life sciences real estate sector. In Boston, a surge in lab space development coincided with difficulties in the life sciences industry.
Will that affect this project? Joshua Parker, the CEO of Ancora, said the market dynamics in Rhode Island are different.
“Boston may have its issues to work through,” Parker said. “But this is less about poaching tenants from Boston, because Boston is so robust, and more about creating a talent cluster here in Rhode Island that builds on the natural things that are already happening.”
Brown will be a big part of that, Parker said; Parker said they didn’t have any tenants besides Brown to announce, but discussions are ongoing, and as the building emerges, it will start to become “real to people.”
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The building is going up on land that used to be taken up by Interstate 195. The project represents progress on related goals of the state: to develop good things on the 195 land, and to build a life sciences economy. Marc Crisafulli, the chair of the 195 Redevelopment District Commission, said he thinks they can support an additional 1,000 life sciences jobs in the district just with the infrastructure that’s currently under development.
The state also recently put $45 million into building a life sciences hub, a priority of House Speaker K. Joseph Shekarchi. As workers install steel to serve as the backbone for lab space in the Jewelry District, a public agency is getting up and running, too, with Neil Steinberg, the former president and CEO of the Rhode Island Foundation, taking over as chair. Shekarchi said collaboration will be an important part of that future in Rhode Island as it looks to build on the success that has made Greater Boston such a powerhouse.
“Yes, our small size is a reality,” Shekarchi said. “But it’s also our greatest asset.”
Brian Amaral can be reached at brian.amaral@globe.com. Follow him @bamaral44.