Google’s Canada Home to Add $120M Expansion

The Breithaupt Block Phase III. Rendering courtesy of Allied Properties REIT

Allied Properties REIT and Perimeter Development Corp. will move ahead with the development of a C$157 million, or $120 million, office project after landing a tenant for the entire 11-story property, which comprises the third phase of an adaptive reuse effort in Kitchener, Ontario.

The developers announced that they have signed up “a high-caliber user” to lease the 294,054-square-foot Phase III of The Breithaupt Block, located in the city’s Innovation District. The existing phases currently house Google’s largest Canadian office, which spans 185,000 square feet. The developers would not disclose the occupier they had snagged for the new phase just across the street, but a report in The Record indicates that Google will expand into the space, more than doubling its office footprint in the complex.

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Construction of Phase III and its ancillary parking structure is slated to begin in October, with completion expected to take roughly two and a half years. The developers began planning Phase III in 2017 and the Kitchener council gave the green light for the development in June 2018.

Google opened its new office in The Breithaupt Block at the start of 2016, raising the profile of downtown Kitchener as an emerging center for tech firms. The redevelopment of a former car parts manufacturing plant created a four-story brick-and-beam office building at 51 Breithaupt St. and a five-story, LEED Gold-certified office property featuring a three-story glass box at 25 Breithaupt St. The two phases provide a total of 226,399 square feet.

The Breithaupt Block Phase III. Rendering courtesy of Allied Properties REIT

In a statement, the developers said the user had committed to a 15-year lease of the new office space plus all of the underground parking in Phase III, representing all of the leasable area. The joint venture will develop the office building on a 64,033-square-foot plot, and will reserve another swath of land for surface parking.

The venture has also acquired another two parcels on which it will build a parking structure with about 700 spaces. The new office building will target LEED Gold certification, according to the statement.

Google is believed to have more than 600 employees at its location in The Breithaupt Block. The search giant has been adding 1,400 employees per year, and is rapidly expanding in Manhattan, where it employs roughly 7,000 people.