As seen from Francis Street, the new Blue Cross & Blue Shield headquarters building, left, next to the Waterplace apartments, is beginning to take shape.

The Providence Journal / Mary Murphy

Construction of Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Rhode Island’s new headquarters is on schedule and on budget, said Christopher Medici, a spokesman for the insurance company.

The headquarters is being built in Providence’s downtown Capital Center, next to the new Waterplace apartments at the corner of Finance Way and Exchange Place. It is expected to cost $120 million.

The steel skeleton of the 12-story, 237-foot office building was completed in August and construction crews are now working to enclose the frame.

The new headquarters will allow Blue Cross to consolidate its work force, which now stands at more than 1,000 people. They currently work in five or six different buildings, Medici said.

The first group of employees is scheduled to move into the new building in the fourth quarter of next year, he said. The rest will move in by the end of the first quarter in 2010.

Blue Cross is a state-chartered, nonprofit health-insurance company. With about 670,000 members, it is the dominant carrier in Rhode Island.