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Construction and landscaping crews are putting the final touches on a new Provalus facility in downtown Brewton. Leaders with the company have set a grand opening and ribbon cutting event for Wednesday, Dec. 8 at 11 a.m.

The facility, which is described as a state-of-the-art, 55,000 sq. ft. facility, has been under construction for a few years and will officially house employees of the Brewton Provalus offices. Located at 206 St. Nicholas Avenue, the building will be home to current and future employees.

Will Ruzic, vice president of facilities and operations at Provalus, said the facility opening is the culmination of a lot of hard work.

“We are excited to see this vision come to fruition,” Ruzic said. “It’s been four years of work. We understood where this was going, but it was hard to show the public. Now, with the opening of the facility, the vision will be seen by the community.”

Ruzic said the Brewton office is home to more than 180 employees with new trainees on board this week.

“We have added 14 new trainees this week,” Ruzic said. “We want to hire more, but we were limited because of space. With this new facility, we will be able to house more employees and hope to continue our hiring in the community.”

Ruzic said the new offices will allow the company to continue hiring with hopes of have as many as 300 employees on board in the next 12 to 18 months. The facility can house up to 400 employees, he said.

“Our employees, in general, didn’t have a background in IT before coming to us,” Ruzic said. “Many of our employees are recent high school graduates or have come to us from other jobs. We want to show these employees what a career looks like and to think long-term. We want to break that hourly-wage mentality. We want to bring opportunities to the community and are ready to train the folks who are already here.”

Special dignitaries will be speaking at Wednesday’s ribbon cutting event including Alabama Governor Kay Ivey. Joining Ivey on the dias will be Brewton Mayor Yank Lovelace, State Senator Greg Albritton, Provalus President Laura Chevalier and Ruzic.

The ribbon cutting ceremony is slated to begin at 11 a.m.