The new home of Google:
 
Feb 8, 2014 | Terry Pender | The Record | LINK
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KITCHENER — Speculation heated up Friday that Google will expand into the Breithaupt Block buildings after a commercial real estate company put out a news release about the move.
"Google has reportedly leased the remainder of the brick and beam space at Breithaupt Block," Cushman & Wakefield said in the release.
The headline on the news release says: A tale of two markets — Kitchener's two-tiered office market solidified as Google inks deal for remainder of Breithaupt Block.
Google currently is located in the Tannery building at 151 Charles St. W. in downtown Kitchener. The Breithaupt Block is a nearby group of four factory buildings that are being developed into modern office space by Perimeter Development Corp.
It is located on Breithaupt Street, just west of the railway tracks and the future site of the central multi-modal transit station at King and Victoria streets.
Benjamin Bach, Cushman & Wakefield's leasing adviser in Waterloo Region, said word of Google's move into the Breithaupt Block comes from existing tenants in the development who were told they could not get more space because Google leased all the remaining space.
"It was confirmed to us by groups close to the transaction," Bach said in an interview Friday.
Cushman & Wakefield also tried to lease space in the Breithaupt Block for its own clients, said Bach.
"We have asked if there are 1,000 square feet or 10,000 square feet or 50,000 square feet available there, and the answer we are told is there is zero space available," he said.
Google did not respond Friday when asked to comment on the report.
Craig Beattie, a partner in Perimeter Development, said he cannot confirm Google is moving into the Breithaupt Block.
"That is only rumour," he said in an email. "C & W should not be reporting that."
Google steadily increased its workforce in Waterloo Region since the internet giant arrived here in 2005 through the acquisition of Reqwireless, a startup that developed mobile phone applications. Back then, it had about 30 employees in an office in the research and technology park on the University of Waterloo's north campus.
In 2010, Google announced plans to move into 34,000 square feet of space in the Tannery. When the company had an official opening for those offices in March 2011, it had more than 100 employees and was exercising its option to expand into more space in the building.
"There is no limit to our hiring here," Steven Woods, Google's senior engineering director in the Kitchener office, said at the opening.
By last October, Google's payroll here increased to between 250 and 300 people, Woods said.
Speculation about Google's move into the Breithaupt Block underscores the importance of preserving old industrial buildings and offices in the city's core, said Bach. Technology companies love that kind of space, he said.
While conventional office space in downtown Kitchener has a chronically high vacancy rate, that's not the story with the industrial chic space, said Bach.
"One of the great legacies of the manufacturing heritage in Kitchener is that we have a lot of beautiful old manufacturing buildings," he said.
"It is a wonderful opportunity in terms of urban renewal to see those buildings reused," Bach said. "I think it speaks to the entrepreneurial spirit in our region that we are taking old buildings and making new things and new ideas in them."
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Speculation mounts over Google move to Breithaupt Block
Feb 14, 2014 | Rose Simone | The Record | LINK
Quote:
KITCHENER — Google will be moving its Waterloo Region offices into the Breithaupt Block in Kitchener.
"We've signed a lease for new office space at the Breithaupt Block to accommodate the natural growth of our engineering and development team at our Kitchener-Waterloo office," Leslie Church, a spokesperson for Google Canada, confirmed in an email statement late Thursday.
There had been speculation for some time that Google, which has been running out of room at its current location in the Tannery building in Kitchener, would move into larger quarters in the Breithaupt Block.
Confirmation came after Allied Properties Real Estate Investment Trust, which owns 50 per cent of the development at Breithaupt and King streets, announced Thursday that a "substantial tenant" had signed a long-term lease for 185,000 square feet of space, starting later this year and the rest in the early part of 2016.
An additional two-storey building is being developed on the property for early 2016.
Google said it does not yet have dates for the move into the Breithaupt Block.
Iain Klugman, chief executive at Communitech, said an announcement about what will happen with the space that Google is currently using in at the Tannery building will be made at a later date.
Google's presence in Waterloo Region has been steadily growing since it arrived here in 2005 through the acquisition of Reqwireless, a mobile phone software developer.
At that time, it had about 30 employees in the University of Waterloo's research and technology park. By the time it moved into the 34,000 square feet of space in the Tannery in 2011, it had grown to about 100 employees, and now, it employs 240 people in Kitchener.
The Breithaupt Block property initially consisted of six industrial buildings in Kitchener's warehouse district with about 176,000 square feet of leasable space and two acres of surplus land. At the end of last year, about 23 per cent of it had been leased.
Last week, a commercial real estate company, Cushman & Wakefield, said in a news release that Google had reportedly leased the remainder of the brick and beam space.
According to Allied Properties, the additional two-storey building being developed for early 2016 will bring the total leasable space on that block to 221,000 square feet.
Craig Beattie, a partner in Perimeter Development Corp., which owns the other 50 per cent of the Breithaupt Block, said the company is excited to finish off the project.
The signing of such a major tenant is "further evidence of the strength and interest in companies to locate in the urban core of the city," Beattie said.
He said many companies want to locate close to existing and future transit such as the light rail transit and the other amenities in the core, in order to provide a better work environment for their employees to help them attract and retain top talent.
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