Nansemond-Suffolk Academy and community leaders gathered for a groundbreaking ceremony Tuesday on a piece of land next to the TowneBank operations center and university on Harbour View Boulevard.

The ceremony marked the beginning of construction for the academy’s Harbour View satellite campus.

According to Keith Horton, senior executive vice president and chief administrative officer for TowneBank — the TowneBank Foundation donated the land — the campus will first encompass pre-kindergarten through third grade, on the first floor of a 22,500-square-foot, two-story building.

The second floor, Horton said, will provide room for future expansion through fifth grade.

Horton, also a past academy trustee, indicated the campus would be convenient for parents who live in North Suffolk or one of the surrounding cities, but work in Harbour View.

“A lot of people don’t really want to drive their child all the way out to the other side of Suffolk, especially when they are young,” Horton said. “This gives a lot of people the opportunity to bring their child almost to work with them.”

Designed by Virginia Beach-based HBA Architecture, campus plans also include a future 4,000-square-foot gymnasium, plus the other usual elements of a school, such as playgrounds, a bus loop and parking.

Birdsong Peanuts CEO and general counsel George Birdsong, whose son, Charles Birdsong, an NSA trustee, chairs a fundraising drive for the new campus and several other projects, said it’s important to provide the opportunities for education the academy affords to all parts of Suffolk.

“Some parents feel that having a school site for younger kids in the North Suffolk area will be a plus,” he said.

“Later, as the kids get older, hopefully they will then move toward the main campus. … It offers another opportunity for people to be able to participate in the school.”

Trustee Brian Rowe, who chairs the board’s building and grounds committee, said the TowneBank buildings next door, which opened in late 2012, provided a design benchmark for the academy campus, while TowneBank staff, including chairman and CEO Bob Aston, were “instrumental in giving us the ingredients we need.”

“The design, in the end, is really the easy part,” Rowe said.

During the ceremony, official remarks came from Deborah B. Russell, head of school; Suffolk Mayor Linda T. Johnson; and Rob Gies, chairman of the Board of Trustees.

NSA has always been conscious of the role surrounding cities have played in its success, Gies said, and it wanted to provide those families with a campus next to the I-664 corridor.

“We have all come together to march the Saints into the next stage of Nansemond-Suffolk Academy’s future,” he said.

Russell said that in the past year and a half, $5.3 million has been raised toward a $6-million fundraising goal. Besides the North Suffolk campus, the funds will also go toward an enhanced science, technology engineering and math curriculum for students in pre-K through 12th grade, including an Innovation Lab providing hands-on learning, according to an earlier news release.

NSA also has announced plans for capital enhancements for arts and athletics, including locker room, training facility and track renovations; upgraded sound, lighting and recording systems; and “improvements to the overall facility, such as security, amenities and outdoor spaces.”

Plans are also afoot for “faculty benefits, such as leadership development, technology and continuing education.”

“This is truly a remarkable achievement for Nansemond-Suffolk Academy in such a short period of time, made possible with the generosity of approximately 50 donors,” Russell said of the money raised so far.

The campus is scheduled to open in time for the 2016-2017 academic year.