POCATELLO — A new Interstate 15 interchange that will provide access to a large development project underway in north Pocatello — expected to add thousands of new jobs and homes to the community — is slated to open by December, a developer announced Friday morning.

Local dignitaries gathered in an open field for a ribbon-cutting ceremony, symbolizing the opening of the much-anticipated Northgate Project, which is being spearheaded by a partnership involving private builders, Bannock County, the cities of Pocatello and Chubbuck, Idaho Transportation Department and the Portneuf Health Trust.

“We’ve been working and working for years on this. It’s just exciting to see this kind of growth in Pocatello,” Pocatello Mayor Brian Blad said. “We’ve got everything right in place, and things are moving in the right direction.”

In the distance, a fleet of excavators cut the footprint of an Olympus Road extension, which will connect Pocatello to the new interchange north of the city. The interchange will also serve Chubbuck, via an extension of Siphon Road.

ITD is slated to open bidding on paving of the new interchange June 5. The Chubbuck-based Portneuf Development and Utah-based Millennial Development Partners are working together on building Northgate in phases.

Buck Swaney, Millennial’s managing partner, said more than $2 million has already been invested in engineering of the infrastructure.

“The environmental process is completed. Our permitting is essentially done. Our funding is done. The contracting is essentially done,” Swaney said, prompting applause when he vowed the public will be using the interchange before the year’s end.

Adjacent to the Northgate property, Portneuf Health Trust opened a Wellness Complex with an outdoor amphitheater, a fishing and swimming pond and sports facilities in September 2015.

Portneuf Health Trust has also purchased 20 acres within Northgate to serve as a future medical campus. Shaun Menchaca, the trust’s president and CEO, said construction on the medical campus — which he anticipates will provide out-patient services — should begin next spring.

Ken Pape, director of operations with Portneuf Development, said Northgate is planned to eventually include housing for up to 10,000 people — varying from a gated community with 52 single-family homes for senior citizens to multi-family homes perfect for the millennial generation. Pape said some of the homes in the gated community have already been sold, and initial home construction should commence within the next month.

Pape said there’s been great interest among businesses in a planned Northgate technology park, and the project will also include light retail space and recreational amenities, such as a trail system.

“There’s a lot of interest all over the place in Southeast Idaho, but you’ve got to have the land, you’ve got to have the infrastructure and you’ve got to have it where people want to live,” Pape said. “You can’t have a better piece of ground than across from the Wellness Center.”