Building the CREATE Center: A New Home for Retreat and Learning at MHCS

Laredo, TX — Zertuche Construction is proud to have served as the general contractor on the CREATE Center at Mary Help of Christians School (MHCS), a project that renovated the school's historic East Wing into a modern space for retreat, education, advancement, and training.

The project reimagines a wing of the 1935 Salesian campus as a purpose-built space for gathering, teaching, and reflection. Zertuche's scope covered new food service and laundry infrastructure, private living space for the resident Sisters, a chapel, locker rooms, and a mix of conference and meeting rooms designed to flex between classroom use and overnight retreats — with room for two dozen-plus guests to stay on-site. The result gives MHCS a flexible home base for the leadership and faith-formation programming it runs for Laredo youth year-round.

MHCS has shaped generations of young people in Laredo, and Zertuche was honored to help carry that mission into its next chapter. From pre-construction through final walkthrough, the Zertuche team worked closely with MHCS leadership to honor the character of the historic campus while delivering the modern functionality the CREATE Center needed — the same hands-on, detail-driven approach Zertuche brings to every project, from tenant improvements to ground-up builds.