Developer First Gulf has ensured that workers employed at its new office building currently under construction in Oakville, Ont. have multiple options to get to and from their jobs, thanks to a special arrangement with Oakville Transit to provide bus service right to the door.
The building, rising at 610 Chartwell Rd. near the Mississauga border, will be highly accessible for motorists — not to mention highly visible — given its proximity to the Queen Elizabeth Way (QEW) east of the Trafalgar Road exit. It is walkable, notes First Gulf executive vice-president David Carreiro, given that it is located just over one kilometre away from the Oakville GO Station with its GO trains and buses as well as Oakville Transit and VIA Rail nodes. And further enhancing its accessibility, First Gulf has contracted with Oakville Transit to send buses to and from the workplace four times each in the morning and evening with connections to the GO station.
First Gulf finds the east Oakville area near the QEW highly desirable, explained Carreiro, with easy access to the Mississauga and Toronto markets via the QEW and the busy public transit hub at the GO station, which he notes is the second busiest Metrolinx station, after Union Station in downtown Toronto.
There are plans to boost the transit and transportation infrastructure including interchange improvements in the broader area, Carreiro said, but they need to come together and the funding has to be put in place.
"There are major dollars that need to be spent," he said.
The GO station is located on the west side of Trafalgar Road. Oakville’s vision for the corridor east of Trafalgar Road to Chartwell Road, as presented in its ambitious Midtown plan, is for the creation of an office park along an upgraded Davis Road from Trafalgar east to Chartwell. Eventually, the plan envisions a bus depot being built on the east side of Trafalgar Road even closer to First Gulf’s 610 Chartwell building than the existing GO station.
First Gulf has already built a headquarters for PwC (PricewaterhouseCoopers) on Davis Road east of Trafalgar, so its new building at 610 Chartwell will serve as a second anchor to the planned office park.
"We developed the PwC building at the west of that block and this is at the east end so it is tying the two pieces together," said Carreiro. On the walkability factor, he said, "If you get a nice day, there are people that will walk it. With the current road configuration it is about three-quarters of a mile but once the (new) road pattern is established it will be a little less.
"And as an alternative, they could take the bus."
First Gulf broke ground on the four-storey 102,000-square-foot office building in early October, hailing 610 Chartwell as the third transit-oriented LEED Gold office building it has recently built in Oakville.
The building is already over 50 per cent leased, Carreiro noted, with engineering firm MMM Group signed up to occupy the bottom two floors, representing 54,000 square feet; MMM will be leaving its local offices at North Sheridan Way in Mississauga to take up residence in Oakville. MMM also acted as a key consultant during the design process, working with the design team at Pearce McCluskey Architects.
Once complete, 610 Chartwell will provide office space for up to 600 employees. Move-in day for the first tenant is expected to be Jan. 1, 2017. The completed value of the project, fully leased, is in the $35-million range, Carreiro said.
"It’s been great working with MMM," he noted. "They had to buy into the vision and be patient because there was some rezoning to do, it took a little bit longer than we hoped."
Overall, the local development scene is strong, he said.
"The climate is very good. Interest in the remaining space is good."
With more than $3-billion in developed assets, First Gulf has developed and constructed over 30-million square feet of office, retail, mixed-use and industrial real estate across North America. Recent projects have included the Canadian head offices for The Globe and Mail, Coca-Cola Canada and Siemens Canada.
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