Company has entered the next stage of its Canadian growth
Shopify Inc. has entered the next stage of its Canadian growth with its $500-million investment in Toronto’s commercial property market.
The Ottawa-based firm will be leasing 254,000 square feet from Allied Properties Real Estate Investment Trust and RioCan Real Estate Investment Trust at The Well, the company said in a statement late last week.
Shopify is set to occupy its space at The Well – which is one of Toronto’s biggest office developments – by 2022. The lease will last 15 years, Bloomberg reported.
The tech giant has about 700 employees in the city and it is planning to expand its workforce as well as its footprint, with a lease of another 178,000 square feet on King Street West slated to begin in 2019.
Read more: Investment in GTA commercial real estate surges
Shopify is not the only corporate player that has taken notice of the vibrancy of Toronto’s commercial segment. Early last month, Uber Technologies Inc. announced that it will begin work in an engineering hub next year, with expansion via hundreds of new employees to follow.
A report released by CBRE Group Inc. in mid-September stated that Toronto accounted for more than one-third of Canada’s total commercial property transactions in Q2 2018.
The market reached a historic high in quarterly investment volume, clocking in at $5.7 billion. This was 20% higher than the previous record set back in 2013.
Overall Canadian commercial activity in the quarter reached $16.5 billion, which was 38% greater than the previous record achieved in Q1 2017.
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