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Halloran lands CEO position
January 20, 2015 | James Jackson | Waterloo Chronicle | LINK
Quote:Waterloo’s former mayor has landed a new job as the chief executive officer of the Waterloo Innovation Network.
Brenda Halloran said the organization is aimed at promoting economic development in Waterloo and attracting top talent and top companies from around the world, and is the brainchild of financier and current Dragons’ Den investor Michael Wekerle.
Halloran expects to use connections she made both regionally and internationally during her eight years as mayor of Waterloo to help the initiative flourish.
As mayor, Halloran made headlines by travelling the globe in search of foreign investment, most notably in China, but also in Europe and South America.
“My role will be to work with Michael Wekerle on creating an innovation technology centre here, a hub,” said Halloran. “He’s looking at attracting entrepreneurs and families and he’s got some really great plans
for this whole area.”
Wekerle has purchased six of the former BlackBerry buildings along the Columbia Street and Phillip Street corridor and Halloran said she was approached by Wekerle about four months ago about the position.
“It’s a dream come true and it’s very similar to a lot of the work I was doing as mayor, looking for jobs and trying to create a really vibrant community,” Halloran said.
They are also looking to partner with other community builders and innovators in Waterloo, including Communitech, the chamber of commerce, Wilfrid Laurier University and University of Waterloo and other local tech companies.
“There’s going to be a lot of collaborative work going on together,” she said.
The Waterloo Innovation Network is currently working on a master plan to map out its priorities and goals for the area.
“(Wekerle) has a great vision, he loves this region,” Halloran said.
“Right now we’re building from the ground up as a team.”
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Wekerle now owns six former BlackBerry buildings in Waterloo
February 9, 2015 | Terry Pender | The Record | LINK
Quote:WATERLOO — The Waterloo Innovation Network — headed by colourful Bay Street financier Michael Wekerle — now owns a cluster of six former BlackBerry buildings along Columbia and Phillip streets and has an option to buy a seventh.
Wekerle, the founder of Toronto-based investment bank Difference Capital, bought the former BlackBerry building at 156 Columbia St. W. about a year ago. It is now fully leased.
"I said I would do it by year end, I did it by the end of January," Wekerle said in an interview. "It is 44,000 square feet and it is fully tenanted now."
Wekerle, a "dragon" on the CBC television show "Dragons' Den," is betting big on Waterloo and the technology companies located here. Since October, he has spent about $47.9 million on the six BlackBerry properties. He put a mortgage for $26 million on some of those properties.
Wekerle established what he calls the Waterloo Innovation Network last year to support the growth of Waterloo Region's technology startups. In January, he hired former Waterloo mayor Brenda Halloran as the network's chief executive officer.
In addition to 156 Columbia St. W., Wekerle's holdings of former BlackBerry buildings include:
•70 Columbia St. W. with 30,000 square feet of space. It is currently vacant, but potential tenants are looking at it.
•176 Columbia St. W with 144,000 square feet. It is leased to BlackBerry.
•180 Columbia St. W. with 62,000 square feet. About one-third is leased and there are term sheets out to other potential tenants.
•450 Phillip St. with 30,000 square feet. It is 16 per cent leased.
•460 Phillip St. with 40,000 square feet. It is fully leased.
Waterloo Innovation Network also owns empty lots at 385 and 405 Phillip St.
Wekerle is looking at another former BlackBerry building at 440 Phillip St. "I went through the building, it is a big building with about 160,000 square feet," he said. "About half of it is rented on a very short-term lease to BlackBerry."
Wekerle made his name in the technology sector as the lead trader at GMP when BlackBerry, then called Research In Motion, went public in 1997. All these years later, he is back, buying up former BlackBerry buildings. BlackBerry employed about 11,000 workers in Waterloo in 2011, but its local workforce was trimmed back 2,700 as the smartphone maker's market share tumbled.
When it comes to 440 Phillip St., Wekerle said a big question is how long BlackBerry would like to stay in the building. He is confident the once-dominant smartphone maker will execute a turnaround.
"I do believe BlackBerry is on the up-and-coming," Wekerle said. "We need BlackBerry in Waterloo and Kitchener."
Last year, BlackBerry sold nearly all of its Canadian real estate. San Francisco-based Spear Street Capital bought all of the Waterloo properties and has turned a profit on the buildings it sold to the Waterloo Innovation Network.
In May 2014, Spear paid $13.7 million for 176 Columbia St. W. About six months later, Waterloo Innovation Network paid Spear $20.4 million for the property.
At 170 Columbia St. W., Spear paid $2.8 million in August 2014. About three months later, Waterloo Innovation Network paid $4.3 million for the property.
Spear made a combined profit of $2.6 million on three other properties it owned for about six months before selling them to Waterloo Innovation Network.
Peter Whatmore, executive managing director and senior vice-president for the southwestern Ontario office of commercial real estate firm CBRE, said predictions that the former BlackBerry buildings would cause a 10-year glut of office space in Waterloo Region are proving to be unfounded.
Whatmore said the growing technology sector in the region means it will take two or three years for the former BlackBerry buildings to be occupied by other companies.
"The market is a very strong market in the Canadian context, it is growing, you are creating jobs and you have high-tech companies that are occupying space at pretty amazing levels," he said.
The vacancy rate for office space in suburban Waterloo did increase in 2014 — to 13.5 per cent, with a total of 5.2 million square feet of empty office space. The slow, steady absorption of that space will continue this year, according to a CBRE report on local office space.
"It's not moving the needle on vacancy rates, but it likely will by the end of the year," Whatmore said of the leasing activity.
BlackBerry constructed high-quality buildings and there is a demand for that kind of space among other technology companies, said Karl Innanen, managing director for Colliers International's Waterloo Region office.
Colliers is working with Spear Street Capital to lease the former BlackBerry buildings still owned by Spear Street. They are larger than the buildings acquired by Waterloo Innovation Network.
Innanen said there is a pent-up demand for big buildings with the right infrastructure — back-up power supplies and enhanced cooling systems for servers.
"We are finding that there are a lot of tenants looking at these spaces," he said. "They want to be close to the university, close to the LRT (light rail transit)."
Mark Arbour, chief operating officer of the Waterloo Innovation Network, said the network is keen to buy more properties in the Kitchener and Waterloo area if appropriate opportunities occur.
"We certainly have an interest in a number of other properties," he said. "Waterloo is where we want to be. We are just very bullish on the area."
Waterloo Innovation Network's short-term plan is to find suitable tenants for its buildings, Arbour said.
The buildings owned by Waterloo Innovation Network have attracted a growing list of startups and technology firms, including Magnet Forensics, Auvik Networks, Coherent Logix, Netsweeper, Nuance, Axonify and ChangeIt.
Arbour said term sheets are out with other prospective tenants that could result in leases for another 40,000 square feet of space.
The longer-term plan is to redevelop the area around Columbia and Phillip streets, said Arbour.
"We are looking to increase the commercial space with regards to more office space, more tech space," he said in an interview.
The master plan for the area will call for a mix of retail, commercial, office and residential.
"That is a long process. We have to go through a number of different government channels to obtain that type of approval," Arbour said. "We have to work with the city to make sure our vision aligns with their vision."
The former BlackBerry buildings Spear Street still owns are at 455, 451 and 440 Phillip St.
"They have been left with the big floor plates for large tenants, which is exactly what they do well," Innanen said. "It has actually worked out well for Spear Street, and I believe it will work out for the Waterloo Innovation Network."
The network is going after smaller firms that Spear is not interested in, he said. "It is kind of a symbiotic relationship between the two."
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High-tech hub? Former BlackBerry buildings almost ready for new tenants
May 4, 2015 | CTV Kitchener | LINK
http://kitchener.ctvnews.ca/mobile/high-...-1.2358125
It’s one of the most prominent intersections in Waterloo’s once-sprawling BlackBerry campus – but for some time now, it’s been far from a hub of high-tech activity.
When the smartphone maker began shedding local jobs as it grappled with a declining market share, it also started leaving properties behind.
Some of those properties were turned over to the University of Waterloo, while others continued to be occupied by BlackBerry.
Another group of buildings, at the corner of Columbia and Phillip streets, eventually found its way into the hands of Michael Wekerle.
The celebrity investor pledged to turn them into the centrepiece of his Waterloo Innovation Network (WIN), an envisioned beehive of high-tech activity just steps from Waterloo’s campus.
“For so many years, we’ve been waiting for the rebirth of this area,” Brenda Halloran, the former mayor of Waterloo and current CEO of WIN, tells CTV News.
That rebirth is finally underway, with buildings like 180 Columbia only weeks away from occupancy.
Halloran says she’s still hearing from people that hadn’t realized the buildings were sitting empty, and now might be interested in setting up shop there themselves.
“There’s a lot of excitement,” she said.
According to real estate broker Ginger Whitney, the six buildings purchased by Wekerle’s firm have managed to fill 78 per cent of their space since December.
The new occupants include businesses relocating from places like Guelph as well as startups expanding into larger space – but all fit Wekerle’s vision for the campus.
“There’s tech, there’s software, there’s some environmental – there’s a variety,” Whitney said.
Elsewhere in the neighbourhood, some former BlackBerry buildings on Phillip are being renovated with space for restaurants, retail operations and larger commercial tenants.
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Can that article be correct that 78% of the 6 buildings purchased are occupied? If so that is incredible.
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05-05-2015, 12:59 AM
(This post was last modified: 05-05-2015, 01:06 AM by Markster.)
Probably "leased" is more accurate.
RIM 7 has a 33% leased sign out front, freshly upgraded from 25%.
RIM 6 doesn't seem to be leased yet?
RIM 5 is now Magnet
The ones up Philip must be doing well. I'm not up there to see.
[edit] wow, that article from February actually has a lot of details. Some of the buildings are really taking their time going from leased to occupied.
Though, Mambella's was pretty reasonably busy for lunch today, and that's a sign!
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Phillip St and area are being branded as the "Idea Quarter".
http://m.therecord.com/news-story/573192...he-iq-test
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We're starting to get multiple names for the same areas it seems
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(07-14-2015, 05:41 AM)rangersfan Wrote: Phillip St and area are being branded as the "Idea Quarter".
http://m.therecord.com/news-story/573192...he-iq-test And Twitter was having a field day with that:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p lang="es" dir="ltr">"Idea" as in singular? <a href="https://t.co/gFRgl31RhC">https://t.co/gFRgl31RhC</a></p>— Jason V (@JJVenky) <a href="https://twitter.com/JJVenky/status/620701188628086784">July 13, 2015</a></blockquote>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr"><a href="https://twitter.com/m_druker">@m_druker</a> I don't know, "Research & Technology - Idea Quarter - We're Smart But Also Super Cool & Hip Station" has a certain ring to it.</p>— Mike Boos (@mikeboos) <a href="https://twitter.com/mikeboos/status/620685471694258177">July 13, 2015</a></blockquote>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Wanted: Pretentious Waterloo Region Place Names map. <a href="https://t.co/1dXPIMZ35X">https://t.co/1dXPIMZ35X</a></p>— Mike Boos (@mikeboos) <a href="https://twitter.com/mikeboos/status/620690570478927872">July 13, 2015</a></blockquote>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr"><a href="https://twitter.com/mikeboos">@mikeboos</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/m_druker">@m_druker</a> Quarters are toats cool guys. But we should upgrade to Quadrants. The Lancaster Good Food Quadrant.</p>— Levi Oakey (@levioakey) <a href="https://twitter.com/levioakey/status/620686515341910016">July 13, 2015</a></blockquote>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr"><a href="https://twitter.com/mikeboos">@mikeboos</a> 'Technology Commons'. 'Grey Heron Estates'. 'Innovation Boardwalk'.</p>— Ryan Flanagan (@flanaganryan) <a href="https://twitter.com/flanaganryan/status/620691460011114496">July 13, 2015</a></blockquote>
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How to make the Toronto-Waterloo corridor into a world-leading innovation centre
Quote:Despite all our assets, the reality today is less an integrated corridor than a series of inadequately linked silos within the Toronto and Waterloo technology ecosystems. We must supplant these silos with the kind of superconnectivity – among entrepreneurs, investors, skilled talent, university researchers, mentors, governments and markets – that powers the London-Cambridge corridor or the San Francisco-San Jose corridor, and, in turn, the British and U.S. economies.
So, how do we do it? Our recipe would look like this:
- Add transportation infrastructure. ...
- Build collaborative bridges between our institutes of higher learning. ...
- Add a heaping spoonful of risk capital. ...
- Stir continuously. ...
- Reduce risk aversion in new product procurement. ...
- Think more globally.
The question is, do we have the collective will to make it happen, and quickly?
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(10-17-2015, 01:42 PM)rangersfan Wrote: Further details for the Idea Quarter:
http://m.therecord.com/news-story/596485...n-waterloo
The description of 'Factory Square' reminds me much of the former Nortel campus on Dixie Road. If it plays out as described, sounds like it would be a great place to work.
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Quote:Wekerle, a dragon on the CBC television show "Dragons' Den," is aiming for a mixed-use development where tech workers can live, work and play in the same area.
I wonder whether he's actually planning to build condo/apartment units, or whether he will be relying on Northdale properties.
The area is ripe for intensification, to be sure. Next door to UW and the R&D park, with lots of underutilized buildings and surface parking. And Valley Blades and Raytheon may find at some point that the land values are high enough for them to move further out.
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(10-20-2015, 12:20 PM)tomh009 Wrote: The area is ripe for intensification, to be sure. Next door to UW and the R&D park, with lots of underutilized buildings and surface parking. And Valley Blades and Raytheon may find at some point that the land values are high enough for them to move further out.
Move out where? The City is short on industrial land as it is, and it would have to be a pretty hefty price tag to relocate a factory. For instance, factory relocation didn't work out so well for the local Schneiders workforce. As an aside, Clemmer Manufacturing (formerly Waterloo Manufacturing) is also nearby on Albert Street.
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(10-26-2015, 01:54 PM)nms Wrote: Move out where? The City is short on industrial land as it is, and it would have to be a pretty hefty price tag to relocate a factory. For instance, factory relocation didn't work out so well for the local Schneiders workforce.
That's quite the extreme, with a 100-year-old factory.
As for moving out where, there's a bunch of software companies that are set up in industrial areas of Waterloo and Kitchener - some of which have an interest in moving to the more central areas. They could swap!
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I don't think its extreme. Schneiders/Maple Leaf needed to build a completely new facility and they were won over by Hamilton. Short of dismantling the existing factory and moving it overnight, any local heavy industry would need to build a new facility first before shutting down the old one (not to mention possibly environmental remediation and related decommissioning of the existing site). Why would a new heavy industry rebuild here, where there could be various delays or complications due to tight spaces, when I'm sure there are many other communities in southwestern Ontario that would love to see that industry relocate to their town.
That being said, the local cities were founded on heavy industries where employees could walk or take transit to work. Will we see a day in the future where a heavy industry or manufacturing is located relatively close to workers without too many adverse affects (ie noise and air pollution)?
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