VIDALIA — Vidalia city officials gathered Tuesday at the site of the former City Hall for a ribbon cutting ceremony as a symbolic kickoff to construction at the Vidalia Technology Center.

A Vidalia city spokesperson said the ceremony was to publicly unveil a rendering of what the Technology Center will look like and update the public on the project.

A groundbreaking ceremony for the center was in late October 2014, while the city was in the process of tearing down the former City Hall building at 200 N. Spruce St., but weather and high water on the Mississippi River delayed construction until this spring, the spokesperson said.

Wilmar Construction began dirt work in April and is now working on the building itself, a 6,386-square-foot structure with 6,038-square feet of heated and cooled space and another 290 feet of unheated or uncooled footage.

The purpose of the building is to house key infrastructure in the Vidalia broadband initiative — which is geared at bringing high-speed Internet to the city — and serve as a business incubator for tech-based businesses. It’s also been designed to showcase the new building codes the city adopted last year.

Business incubator clients will be able to rent an office space and have access to business equipment, but will also be partnered with a local business mentor to help them guide the process of their business’ development.

Mayor Hyram Copeland said the project was 10 years in the works, and he was grateful to the people of Vidalia for supporting it.

“Of all my accomplishments in office, I think this is one of the biggest, because it will be unbelievable what this incubator and this center will guide for this region,” he said.

The U.S. Economic Development Administration granted the $1.2 million funding for the facility. The grant comes with a requirement for a 35-percent match.

Kisatchie-Delta Regional Planning and Development District Executive Director Heather Smoak Urena, who has helped the city with the project, said the broadband initiative will “hold Vidalia and Concordia Parish apart from other small municipalities,” and that in addition to roads, sewer and water, “broadband is the fourth infrastructure” that can help Vidalia businesses control their destinies by connecting it to the wider world.

“Broadband takes this community and even this parish into a level to compete for what business needs now,” she said.

Approximately 20 people attended the ceremony. Mayor-elect Buz Craft was not present.