CAMPUS: TAMIU expands with $71.2 million in construction
By Jorge Garcia
Bridge Contributing Writer
Published Tuesday, Nov. 19, 2024
TAMIU is building $71.2 million in new construction for a new Health Sciences Education and Research Center, as well as to expand the Western Hemispheric Trade Center.
This investment and growth for the campus are among the biggest projects Texas A&M International University is currently undertaking.
An unidentified construction worker stands atop girders during construction on Oct. 30 for the Western Hemispheric Trade Center expansion.
Recently named Interim President Juan Castillo, who until recently served as the vice president for finance and administration, remains one of the administrators who oversees these construction efforts. Having lived in Laredo, Castillo is familiar with the city’s needs.
“Laredo is, as you probably know, a medically unreserved community,” Castillo said. “So, we wanted to increase the number of health sciences programs we have. This building allows us to start new programs in clinical lab sciences and [add] the Doctor of Physical Therapy.”
Psychology major Brisa Alvarez has her thoughts on the construction of these projects.
“This new Health Sciences Education and Research Center will help students who wish to stay in Laredo to pursue their education in Doctor of Physical Therapy,” Alvarez said.
Having known many people who left Laredo to pursue a doctorate in physical therapy, Alvarez said she was glad it would soon be available in Laredo.
University administrators plan to be on schedule for a Spring 2026 completion for the health sciences building.
“We have weekly meetings with the architect and contractors and with our system project manager,” Castillo said earlier in this Fall semester. “Right now, everything is on schedule; everything is coming along exactly as planned.”
Castillo has been part of the team overseeing other completed projects for TAMIU and is familiar with the process; he said he is confident the project is expected to complete on schedule.
Nursing major Daisy Zapata looks forward to the project’s completion.
“This is a great opportunity, not only for the students at TAMIU, but also for the residents of Laredo,” Zapata said. “They will benefit from this project, as it will create more health science jobs at home.”
These projects collectively total $71.2 million.
“We received close to $44.5 million from the state legislature,” Castillo explained. “The project itself was $71.2 million. We look at additional supplemental funding; we have other funding sources of university funds called higher education funds, and that is how we supplemented the difference so we can actually get the buildings that we initially had proposed constructing.”
Managing this huge amount of money is no easy task. Especially trying to keep within the budget, as significant funds are already invested.
“So, this is where the system largely comes into play,” Castillo said. “The A&M
University system helps manage these projects before we even begin construction documents. We had to do what is called a program of requirements, and the program of requirements is where the end users, the people who live in that building, visit with the architects within our architecture firm and they tell them this is what we need, this [is] what we [are] going to do on the building. The architecture firm then determines the amount of square footage needed, any specialized needs and they come up with a price for that building.”
