New Innovation Centre Will Bring 2,000 Jobs to Waterfront

POSTED: FEBRUARY 10, 2015 I INNOVATION, ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT, DESIGN
By Heather Glicksman

Waterfront Toronto is one step closer to creating a live-work-play neighbourhood for East Bayfront with the announcement of a brand new 350,000 square foot innovation centre that will bring more than 2,000 employees to Toronto’s waterfront. The Waterfront Innovation Centre will reinvent how employees work together in Toronto’s rapidly evolving creative and technology sectors. It will also be home to the companies and institutions that are putting Toronto and Canada at the forefront of creating and shaping new technology and applications.

Privately-developed and funded by Menkes Development Ltd., the Waterfront Innovation Centre meets a growing demand for purpose-built creative office space in Toronto. It will allow many different types of industries – including advanced visualization and interactive digital media, gaming, film and TV production – to collaborate, network, and exchange ideas. With Corus and George Brown College in the same area, we are starting to see the beginning of an innovation district – an ecosystem of creative, knowledge employers bringing new skills, ideas and talents to the waterfront. 

With its striking design and location next to Canada’s Sugar Beach, the Waterfront Innovation Centre represents the next evolution in commercial office development. (Image courtesy of Menkes Development Ltd.)

This new development delivers on Waterfront Toronto’s mandate to generate high-value employment on the waterfront, particularly focused in East Bayfront. The East Bayfront Precinct Plan established a vision for a mixed-use community – including an iconic building in this location, modern infrastructure and high-value employment surrounded by high-quality parks and public spaces like Canada’s Sugar Beach and Sherbourne Common.

Acting as a catalyst for additional growth, the Waterfront Innovation Centre will utilize the waterfront-wide ultra-high-speed broadband fibre-optic network. This technology delivers Internet connection speeds exponentially faster than the North American average. Future tenants of the Waterfront Innovation Centre will benefit from this network – one of Toronto’s fastest and most economical – to support their work in data-intensive industries.  

This unique space will be designed by Sweeny & Co Architects Inc., leaders in the architecture of progressive and sustainable workplaces. This Toronto-based architecture firm is well known for their innovative designs which include the TELUS House Toronto, RBC Centre and the Microsoft Canada Headquarters.

Sweeny & Co's vision for the Waterfront Innovation Centre will create a work environment that allows tenants to interact and share resources in a series of interconnected private, semi-private and public spaces. State-of-the-art amenities for all tenants will include a presentation theatre, sophisticated audio-visual and video conferencing tools and workshop facilities with digital production facilities.

Pre-leasing is now underway and construction is targeted to start in late 2016.