MaRS, U of T to open waterfront tech hub
Move to expand company’s city footprint when it opens in 2021
MaRS Discovery District and the University of Toronto are partnering on opening a new hub for tech startups at a new building on Toronto’s waterfront. MaRS and the U of T announced Tuesday they will be leasing 24,000 square feet of office space in the Waterfront Innovation Centre, a development on the inner harbour near Sugar Beach, when it opens in 2021.
The move will expand MaRS’s Toronto footprint from its base near College St. and University Ave.
MaRS rents out office space to tech startups and provides guidance on capital funding, startup generation and research.
The new offices will provide startups with programming and “collaborative working space,” the company said in a new release.
“As Toronto becomes a destination for global talent, venture capital and tech corporations, demand for space is at an alltime high. It’s imperative that we develop new innovative and entrepreneurial hubs in communities across the city,” MaRS CEO Yung Wu said in the release.
The waterfront expansion comes four years after the Ontario government committed more than $300 million in loans to bail out the companyas it struggled to find tenants for its tower near the university.
At the time, critics feared the bailout could become a white elephant for the province, but occupancy has increased since.
MaRS said it had paid off most of the provincial loan by September 2017, and now houses more than 150 tenants, according to Bloomberg.
“The University of Toronto is excited to partner with MaRS to help expand Toronto’s rapidly growing startup scene on the city’s waterfront,” U of T President Meric Gertler said in the release. “It’s a winning combination — MaRS’s world-class suite of innovation programming and expert support for entrepreneurship with the incredible depth and range at U of T.”
Once open, the Waterfront Innovation Centre will hold about 400,000 square feet of commercial space and accommodate around 3,000 workers.