New Hanover County will hold a beam-signing ceremony Tuesday for construction of the county's new Public Health and Social Services Building located at 1650 Greenfield St.

County commissioners, health board and social services board members board will attend to sign the last beam of the building’s frame.
 

The new building will relocate both the county’s Public Health Department and Department of Social Services with the goal of making it more convenient for clients and providing more efficient services.
 

Workers broke ground on the four-story, 96,000-square-foot building in May, and construction started in June, according to the county website.
 

The new building is located behind the current DSS building at 1650 Greenfield St. and will include a 3,300-square-foot multi-purpose room on the first floor, a green roof and terrace on the third floor and a large staff break room on the fourth floor that can access the terrace.
 

The total cost of the building is about $23.1 million. The construction timeline was extended about 35 days due to Hurricane Florence, county spokeswoman Jessica Loeper said.
 

The beam-signing ceremony marks the building’s continued construction progress, and the building is expected to be completed February 2020.
 

After the new building is finished the old DSS building will be torn down, and a new parking lot will be built on the site.
 

The Social Services and Health Department Services are continuing to operate at their current locations.
 

The new Public Health and Social Services building is part of other major projects New Hanover County is working on. 
 

A new Ogden Fire Station at 7375 Market St. started construction in 2017 and is expected to open in March. 
 

The new 19,000-square-foot Pine Valley Branch Library at 3802 South College Road also started construction in 2017 and is expected to be completed in January, according to the county's website.
 

Also, Project Grace is a potential mixed-use project to house the main branch of the New Hanover County Library and Cape Fear Museum along with other possible residential units on a 3-acre, county-owned block in downtown Wilmington.

Two development proposals were submitted to the county for the public-private project, and full proposals were due Friday.

Proposals are slated to be released publicly in early 2019 after they are reviewed, Loeper said.