Google to open startup accelerator, new offices in Kitchener
Waterloo region is 'the perfect place for us to expand our footprint,' Google's Steve Woods says
Google plans to open new offices and a startup accelerator in Kitchener it was announced Thursday afternoon.
Google will be the flagship tenant of the Breithaupt Block Phase 3 expansion, which will be an 11-storey, 294,054 square foot building.
"Once construction is complete, the offices will accommodate new Google employees and Canada's first Google for Startups Accelerator," the city said in a release.
Google is also expanding in Montreal and Toronto.
In a release, Kitchener Mayor Berry Vrbanovic said the move by Google to expand in Kitchener shows Waterloo region's tech sector is "globally significant."
All-day 2-way GO still wanted
Steve Woods of Google Canada Engineering, says the next 10 years "will be crazy" as the company grows.
"We should all be very proud about our community. It's a very unique community, very collaborative," Woods said in an interview, noting Google has worked closely with Communitech and other local partners.
"We are sitting here at what is now one of the densest start-up ecosystems on the planet," said Woods, who is also the site lead in Kitchener.
There's one thing Woods would like to see change, though.
"Maybe we're going to get a train one day," Woods noted, referring to two-way, all-day GO trains to and from Toronto. Waterloo region has been asking the province for the service for years.
Woods says part of the new building will include an expanded community space, similar to the one the company opened in 2018 and has already expanded.
The expansion is part of work by Perimeter Development.
Craig Beattie with Perimeter said the developer is "happy to continue our longstanding relationship with Google."
The Breithaupt Block was once a rubber manufacturing facility, but has been redeveloped into office space.