As the final beam of ConnCAT’s future health-job-childcare hub rose on Dixwell Avenue, Kim Harris and Julia Ficklin each thought of generations past and generations to come.

For Ficklin, that beam meant a longtime dream of her late husband, Alder Tom Ficklin, clicking into place.

For Harris, it meant a trove of resources for the children she teaches starting to materialize.

Harris and Ficklin joined dozens of politicians, developers, and community members Wednesday morning at the construction site of ​“ConnCAT Place,” a long-awaited overhaul of the historic Dixwell Plaza commercial strip between Webster Street and Charles Street on Dixwell Avenue.

ConnCORP, a development-focused affiliate of the local career training nonprofit ConnCAT, convened the group to mark the completion of the metal frame for the initial phase of the $163 million development project. The first building will house ConnCAT’s future headquarters as well as a childcare center run by Friends Center for Children and a children’s mental health center run by Cornell Scott Hill Health. Future construction is slated to bring mixed-income housing, shops including a grocery store or food hall, and a public plaza to the block as well