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多市MaRS Discovery District與多倫多大學(University of Toronto)合作﹐落實向發展商Menkes Developments
Ltd.租用多倫多湖濱創新中心(Waterfront
Innovation Centre)2.4萬平方呎地方﹐設立一個先進的科技中心。
目前仍在興建中的湖濱創新中心預計於2021年啟用﹐該中心是由Menkes與多倫多湖濱公司合作﹐興建一個總面積達40萬平方呎﹑可容納3,000名員工的商業大樓。
湖濱創新中心由建築公司Toronto's Sweeny & Co Architects Inc.設計﹐中心將可提供高速寬頻網絡﹑落地玻璃窗及寬敞空間。中心大樓與加拿大Sugar湖灘相連﹐與建議項目Sidewalk Labs所在的Quayside社區更是近在咫尺。
MaRS行政總裁Yung
Wu表示﹐多倫多吸引來自世界各地的人才﹑創業資金及高科技公司﹐對商用空間的需求甚大。創新行業在多市迅速發展﹐湖濱創新中心未來將成為這些創新行業下一個集中地。
他續稱﹐多市的商用大樓空置率是全北美最低﹐只有3%﹐偏偏新企業正需要大量的商業空間﹐湖濱創新中心的興建正好滿足這方面的需要。
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The 400,000-square-foot Waterfront Innovation Centre is
planned to open in 2021 with space for around 3,000 tech workers. MaRS has
signed a deal to create a hub where fast-growing Canadian ventures can work
alongside corporate partners.
Initially, MaRS plans to lease 24,000 square feet of space
with an option to double this in the future.
This new innovation centre will provide vital space for
Canadian ventures facing Toronto’s tough real estate market — one of the
growing pains associated with the city’s rise as a global tech hub.
In the last 18 months, Toronto has
been on a winning streak and has created more tech jobs than
the San Francisco Bay area, Seattle and Washington, D.C. combined last year
and passed New York in a ranking of “talent markets.” This month, in a sign
of the city’s growing profile, Uber and Microsoft announced
they were separately pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into building
new engineering facilities here. They join a list of major tech companies
investing in the city that includes LG, Samsung, NVIDIA and Salesforce.
There has also been a string of
blockbuster raises by Toronto-based ventures such as Ritual, Rubikloud,
ecobee and Highland Therapeutics, and, across the board, the average value for early-stage
raises is up 18 per cent over the previous five-year
average.
Scaling ventures flush with cash, and corporates moving to
the city and hunting for space have combined to create one of the tightest
commercial real estate markets in the world.
The waterfront centre will be more than just a new
building — it will be the heart of a new innovation community that is
emerging on the lakeshore. It is close to Quayside, where Alphabet’s Sidewalk
Labs is planning a smart neighbourhood that incorporates technologies like
self-driving cars and buildings that sense the weather. And it is near
Daniels Waterfront, a mixed-use building that will house Artscape, George
Brown College and OCAD University, among other key tenants.
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