A big year of expansion for Village Presbyterian Church got even bigger this weekend.

On a crystal clear Sunday afternoon, more than 200 gathered on the site of what will become a new facility for the Village Church Child & Family Development Center at 99th Street and Mission Road for a groundbreaking ceremony.

For 20 years, the church has operated a child care center in the aging former elementary school building on the site. Demand for the church’s child care services had grown to the point that there is currently a waiting list for all six of its classrooms.

“The only thing that’s wrong with what happens over there,” said senior pastor Tom Are Jr., pointing to the current child care facility, “is the building that it happens in. And so we realized we needed to fix that.”

The new center will be 26,000 square feet and will be licensed to accommodate as many as 132 children. The center will have nine classrooms as well as improved security features and outdoor learning and play spaces. It will also be ADA accessible, which the current building is not.

You can see a 3D video walkthrough of the new facility in the video embedded below:

The project will be paid for with more than $7 million raised as part of the $23 million “Now and Tomorrow” capital campaign that kicked off more than two years ago. That campaign also raised funds for the new $12 million Welcome Center that broke ground late last year.

The 99th and Mission property is also home to Village Presbyterian’s Tillotson Building, where it operates its food pantry and mission support operations.