One of the last steel beams was secured in place March 3 to complete framing of the 700,000-square-foot main office building that is the centerpiece of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency’s new Next NGA West campus under construction in North St. Louis, Missouri.
The beam is part of the approximately 5,000 tons of steel used to support the building, which is more than 40% complete. All the steel was fabricated in the United States and erected by local St. Louis workers.
USACE is responsible for managing the design, construction, and delivery of the new facility, which is being built by a McCarthy HITT joint venture with oversight by the NGA and U.S. Air Force. Next NGA West is the largest one-time federal investment project in the Kansas City District and the City of St. Louis history.
“The topping out marks an important milestone for this project which broke ground in November 2019 but actually has been in the works for the past five years since NGA chose this location,” said Jeffery Boyer, Vice President of Operations for McCarthy HITT. “Thousands of people have dedicated countless hours and a lot of hard work to get to this stage of construction. I’d like to specifically thank our ironworkers today for a job done well and a job done safely.”
The new $1.7 billion campus, being built on a 97-acre site in the St. Louis Place neighborhood at Jefferson and Cass Avenues, will replace the current NGA facility located south of downtown in a century’s old building. In addition to the main operations building, the new campus includes two parking garages, a visitor control center, remote inspection facility and a central utility plant.
The next phase of construction will focus on the enclosure of the main operations building. Construction is expected to be complete in 2024 and the campus will be operational in 2025.
NGA has had a significant presence in St. Louis for seven decades and currently employs more than 3,000 local employees. The decision to build at a new location in St. Louis was announced in June 2016. It is the largest federal investment in St. Louis history.
Benefits of the new campus are expected to include environmental, cost and policy advantages; expanded partnerships with universities and innovative, technology-based companies; an enhanced ability to recruit new employees; and proximity to NGA’s data facilities and current and future workforce.
