Update: No confirmation yet… See this post for latest details on Facebook in Kitchener
Facebook moving into the Breithaupt Block in Kitchener ?
UPDATE: 570 News has confirmed that the “company doing the work indicated it is for Mark Zuckerberg’s company” Facebook.
UPDATE 2: The Record is now reporting:
“D’Angelo said Facebook’s move to Kitchener was openly talked about at the job site, but nobody at the city, Facebook, the company redeveloping the buildings or the high-tech community could confirm it.”
It seems that every week we hear a new announcement about tech success in Waterloo Region. This week, the rumour is that Facebook is looking at space in Kitchener’s Breithaupt Block on King Street.
The Breithaupt Block is a former factory which is owned by Perimeter Development and Allied REIT and is being redeveloped into Class A offices. The building is being leased out by Colliers, and John Lind from Colliers gave me a tour of the site earlier this week. It is going to be a gorgeous office site for Facebook and the other tenants who will call it home.
DCN ran a story this morning about the remediation work that AIM Environmental Group is doing on The Breithaupt Block, in preperation for Facebook to move in:
Remediation key for Facebook’s new Kitchener, Ontario home
Kitchener continues to be a Canadian high-tech hub, so it’s no surprise that Facebook is planning a major presence a stone’s throw from the city’s downtown Google offices. The job of selective demolition and environmental abatement on the office site was awarded to the demolition unit of AIM Environmental Group of Stoney Creek, on behalf of client and project manager Zehr Kalman Levesque.
“The site consists of a block of buildings all interlocked, ranging from structures built in the 1930s up until the 1970s,” says Tony D’Angelo, general manager of operations with AIM. “What we were asked to do is to environmentally remediate the building and create three swaths right through the building, then prepare the structure for small outdoor courtyards that will be built inside the block of buildings. We also had to carve a lane way between buildings to access a new parking facility.”
While the Breithaupt Block isn’t mentioned by name in the article, the picture accompanying the article shows AIM hard at work on the Breithaupt Block site, in preperation for Facebook and other commercial tenants.
If Facebook occupies this space, they will be part of Kitchener’s Innovation District containing tenants like Google, RIM, Desire 2 Learn, Communitech, The School of Pharmacy and more.
Downtown Kitchener gets cooler and cooler every day.
