Waco Family Medicine HQ passes topping

WATCH NOW: A small crowd of Waco Family Medicine administrators, supporters, donors and scores of Beck Group workers in their fluorescent yellow safety vests, some wearing their helmets, attended Friday's topping-out, a traditional ceremony that marks a milestone in major construction projects.

The construction crane towering over the four-story Waco Family Medicine building in process lifted a symbolic cargo near midday Friday to the approval of some 200 workers and Waco Family Medicine supporters watching underneath.

The crane carried the final steel girder to the rooftop of the $64 million building, closing a structural phase for the facility expected to replace the organization’s existing building in the 1600 block of Colcord Avenue and upgrade its services for the 21st century.

Waco Family Medicine CEO Dr. Jackson Griggs, right, shakes hands Friday with a member of a Beck Group crew building the organization’s new headquarters in the 1600 block of Colcord Avenue, as other crew members sign the facility’s final girder, installed shortly thereafter in a “topping-out” ceremony.

A small crowd of Waco Family Medicine administrators, supporters, donors and scores of Beck Group workers in their fluorescent yellow safety vests, some wearing their helmets, attended Friday’s topping-out, a traditional ceremony that marks a milestone in major construction projects. The girder, painted white, carried the black signatures of dozens of supporters, donors and workers, and its installation into the building’s structure was the key moment of the topping-out ceremony.

The new four-story facility will allow Waco Family Medicine to expand its patient capacity and doctor training program, provide space for supplemental community services and innovate ways to meet community health care needs on-site and at its more than a dozen other clinics throughout McLennan County.

The health center’s headquarters, located in the Brook Oaks neighborhood in central Waco, and its clinics provide medical, dental and behavioral health services to more than 60,000 people, most of whom are low-income or uninsured.

Speaking to an audience in the shade of an unfinished ground floor, Beck Group general superintendent Bryan Henslow ticked off the numbers that had brought his crews and Waco Family Medicine to this point: 92,000 man-hours, 9,000 cubic yards of concrete poured and foundational floors laid for the building’s 143,000 square feet of space.

“It’s been all up to you guys,” he told his listeners.

Work on Waco Family Medicine's $64 million headquarters, slated to be finished in June, is entering a new phase after the ceremonial installation of its final structural steel girder Friday.

Waco Family Medicine CEO Dr. Jackson Griggs continued the praise to the workers responsible for building the physical reality of the medical facility that has been years in the planning. He thanked them for “risking fingers and backs and, for those belaying, even their lives.”

Griggs said he came to the event after helping his in-laws, both in their 80s, move to Waco.

“It had me thinking about what we create and what we leave behind,” he said. “You guys have created something awesome that will be here long after we’re gone.”

Friday’s topping-out ceremony finds the $65 million construction project closing in on its planned opening in June. Fundraising also is progressing on schedule, with some $32 million already secured, Chief Advancement Officer Dale Barron said.

The construction and fundraising progress has pleased Waco Family Medicine Institute Director Dr. Mike Hardin Jr., reached for comment earlier this week.

“Construction is on time and on budget, which is great,” Hardin said.

Workers sign the final steel girder for Waco Family Medicine's new headquarters in the 1600 block of Colcord Avenue before a topping-out ceremony Friday.

With the final girder in place, work on the building’s framing and interior will begin. Beck Group’s planning and design work has kept the project moving forward and within budget despite rising construction costs and supply line issues, he said.

Hardin said he anticipates donors and Waco Family Medicine backers will finish off the project’s capital campaign, one of the largest in McLennan County. He said he has found community support for Waco Family Medicine and its new building a shot in the arm after the trying years of the pandemic.

“The most exciting thing for me has been how truly excited people get about the mission of the organization,” he said.

Work so far on Waco Family Medicine's 143,000-square-foot facility in the 1600 block of Colcord Avenue has included 92,000 man-hours and the pouring of 9,000 cubic yards of concrete.

Work on Waco Family Medicine's $64 million headquarters, slated to be finished in June, is entering a new phase after the ceremonial installation of its final structural steel girder Friday.

Workers sign the final steel girder for Waco Family Medicine's new headquarters in the 1600 block of Colcord Avenue before a topping-out ceremony Friday.

Workers sign the final steel girder for Waco Family Medicine's new headquarters in the 1600 block of Colcord Avenue before a topping-out ceremony Friday.

Waco Family Medicine CEO Dr. Jackson Griggs, right, shakes hands Friday with a member of a Beck Group crew building the organization's new headquarters in the 1600 block of Colcord Avenue, as other crew members sign the facility's final girder, installed shortly thereafter in a "topping-out" ceremony.

Waco Family Medicine officials, area politicians and celebrities Chip and Joanna Gaines ceremonially broke ground Thursday on a $61 million central facility for the medical services nonprofit that will replace the current one at its existing location in the 1600 block of Colcord Avenue.

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WATCH NOW: A small crowd of Waco Family Medicine administrators, supporters, donors and scores of Beck Group workers in their fluorescent yell…