The rapidly expanding Wilmington office of a Virginia-based general contractor is about to get even busier.

On Friday, the Board of Trustees at the University of North Carolina Wilmington approved the company, W.M. Jordan Company, as the construction manager at risk for the school’s $66 million Allied Health Building project. The second and third choices were Balfour Beatty and Samet Corp., respectively.

The new UNCW building, part of the Connect NC bond that North Carolina voters approved in March, will house the College of Health and Human Services, including the Center for Healthy Communities; existing academic programs in health and applied human sciences, nursing, clinical research and social work; and related labs and classrooms.

Construction of the 170,000-square-foot facility, designed by EYP, is expected to be built in several phases starting in January 2018, according to a news release from W.M. Jordan. The building could be finished by December 2019, the release said, and preconstruction services are expected to begin immediately.
 
W.M. Jordan, a 58-year-old firm, has completed more than 65 higher education projects in the past 10 years. Vying for the Allied Health building was a competitive process, company officials said.
 
“Our experienced team and W.M. Jordan Company’s commitments to higher education made the difference,” said Rob Beale, vice president of W.M. Jordan’s Carolinas Division, in the release.

Beale was recently promoted to the vice president position after serving as office manager since he opened the W.M. Jordan office in Wilmington in 2012. In four years, his staff has grown to 25 staff members now serving clients in North Carolina and South Carolina from the company’s office at 1712 Eastwood Road.
 
The firm is undergoing its second expansion, expected to be complete at the end of the month, at the Eastwood Road office.
 
In addition to several other hotels across the Carolinas, W.M. Jordan is also building the Embassy Suites that will serve as the Wilmington Convention Center hotel.