Groundbreaking started on Thursday on the Waterfront Innovation Centre by Menkes Developments Ltd. in partnership with Alcion Ventures per Construction Links. This will be a new 400,000 square foot landmark office building located on the Toronto waterfront and designed by architects Sweeny & Company. It will be comprised of two buildings, with three distinct but interconnected components. The Exchange, The Hibe and The Nexus, a space that will serve as a public square and directly connect the two buildings.
Construction will be located in East Bayfront which is next to Canada's Sugar Beach. The Waterfront Innovation Centre will anchor Toronto's growing innovation cluster on the eastern waterfront and will represent the next evolution in workplace design that helps reaffirm how today's workforce comes together with the city's expanding creative and technology sectors. This project will revitalize Toronto's waterfront and not only drive economic development but also help make the East Bayfront area into a beautiful new neighborhood for people to live, work and play. The complex is expected to create nearly 3,000 jobs.
"This state-of-the-art office building will establish East Bayfront as the City's newest innovation corridor. We're proud to offer a building that is purpose-built to foster innovation and collaboration, and also meet the growing demand for more adaptable work spaces. We are so pleased to have WPP, a global leader in communications as the building's anchor tenant, and we're confident that this world-class complex will continue to attract a multitude of innovative, forward-thinking companies."
President of the Commercial/Industrial Division of Menkes | Peter Menkes
The Waterfront Innovation Centre will include the following features:
- Cutting-edge building automation controls
- Under-floor air distribution
- Direct/indirect LED lighting
- High performance curtain-wall system
- Occupancy/daylight sensors
- Floor to ceiling glass for maximum natural light penetration
- Power generation via a rooftop photovoltaic solar array
The building has been conceived with the aim of achieving the highest standards in environmental sustainability by aspiring for LEED Gold certification. Occupancy is expected to be in 2021.
"The Waterfront Innovation Centre is the workplace of the future, supporting Waterfront Toronto's mandate to make Toronto's waterfront synonymous with innovation.
We're thrilled to celebrate this milestone occasion with Menkes, as it demonstrates how we're providing the enabling conditions and infrastructure to attract private sector development that catalyzes the business and job growth necessary to make our Toronto and Ontario more competitive on a global scale."
Chair of the Board, Waterfront Toronto | Helen Burstyn
Menkes Developments Ltd. is a fully integrated real estate company involved in the construction, ownership and management of office, industrial, retail and residential properties. They are one of the largest private developers in Canada, primarily in the Greater Toronto Area. The company's latest project, Sugar Wharf, is a proposed waterfront community on an 11.5 acre site in downtown Toronto. Interested in other projects that Menkes Developments has in the works?
According to Urban Toronto, Waterfront Toronto chose Menkes for this project after an open and competitive selection process. Within minutes of the groundbreaking, drilling rigs to create the shoring for the project were operating at the site.
This waterfront area used to be a mostly rundown industrial location up until about a decade ago. Waterfront Toronto began the regeneration of this area by constructing the Corus Quay building and other high profile developments emerged shortly afterwards.