In a display of enduring friendship and the important bilateral partnership, Consul General Courtney Beale and Jim Adams of the Bureau of Overseas Buildings Operations (OBO) celebrated the beginning of construction of the new U.S. Consulate General in Merida, Mexico.
The official groundbreaking ceremony has been postponed due to the Coronavirus pandemic, but progress on the site continues. The new U.S. Consulate General will provide a secure, resilient, and sustainable platform for diplomacy. Miller Hull Partnership of Seattle, Washington is the design architect for the project and BL Harbert International, LCC is the construction contractor. The project is expected to be completed in 2023.
The multi-building complex will be situated in the Via Montejo development, and will provide a safe, secure, and modern facility platform for the Consulate community and those it serves.
The construction of the new Consulate General represents an investment of nearly $150million U.S. dollars and shows the commitment of the U.S. government to the Yucatan Peninsula during the coming decades.
The Consulate was designed to reflect the beauty of the surrounding area, including an internal water feature representing the cenote presence in the region. An estimated workforce of over a thousand American and Mexican nationals will be engaged over the course of the construction of the new consulate. The vast majority of these will be local workers.
“We look forward to celebrating the official groundbreaking with our Mexican friends in the coming months. The new U.S. Consulate General in Merida will provide a larger, more modern building from which to provide visa services and assist U.S. citizens throughout the Yucatan Peninsula. It is a strong and enduring symbol of the friendship and important bilateral partnership between the United States and the people of Mexico.” Said CG Beale.
The projects reflect the ongoing investment in the U.S. diplomatic presence in Mexico initiated with new consulate projects in Ciudad Juarez (opened in 2008), Tijuana (opened in 2011), Monterrey (opened in 2014), Matamoros (opened in 2019). Construction of a New Embassy in Mexico began in 2018 and consulate in Hermosillo, Guadalajara and Nogales broke ground in 2019.
Since the start of the Department’s Capital Security Construction Program in 1999, OBO has completed 157 new diplomatic facilities and has an additional 59 projects in design or under construction.
OBO provides safe, secure, functional, and resilient facilities that represent the U.S. government to the host nation and support our staff in the achievement of U.S. foreign policy objectives. These facilities represent American values and the best in American architecture, design, engineering, technology, sustainability, art, culture, and construction execution.