TORONTO — Microsoft is investing in its Canadian operations by building a new, state-of-the-art headquarters in downtown Toronto.
Construction of the new Microsoft Canada headquarters at CIBC Square, located at 81 Bay St., is underway with occupancy expected for September 2020. The new headquarters comprises 132,000 square feet over four floors of the building. CIBC Square is a project by Ivanhoe Cambridge and Hines.
The new facility is part of a series of investments by Microsoft in Canada over the next four years which will enable an expansion of Canadian operations including increasing staff, modernizing its real estate and growing its research lab in Montreal that is focused on artificial intelligence, explains a recent release.
Microsoft says moving to a new facility will enable the company to better serve its customers, collaborate with its technology partners and to attract top talent to a central location, one well served by transit and more accessible to universities and innovative new tech start-ups.
“Increasingly, Canada is being recognized as a global leader in technology and the investments we are making today and into the future will help ensure Canada continues to be a hotbed of innovation,” said Microsoft Canada president Kevin Peesker in a statement. “By relocating our headquarters to downtown Toronto, we will be able to better serve our customers and attract top talent to continue to drive innovation and growth for our Canadian customers and our large partner ecosystem.”
Currently, Microsoft employs more than 2,300 employees across Canada.
The company expects that given the pace of technology and the investments it is making, the Microsoft ecosystem could account for more than 60,000 new jobs by the time its new headquarters opens in two years, adds the release.
The entire 2.9-million-square-foot bank complex will serve as CIBC’s headquarters and will house approximately 15,000 of the bank’s Toronto-area employees.
The bank intends to lease up to 1.75-million square feet of office space in two connected buildings in the Bay Park Centre, which will be located across from Union Station and the Air Canada Centre.
The first of the towers is scheduled to be completed in 2020 and the second in 2023.
More than 4,000 construction-related jobs are expected to be created over the course of Bay Park Centre’s development, according to Ivanhoe Cambridge and Hines.
Recent Comments
comments for this post are closed