At ‘centre ice’

CBRE moves to Innovation District

KITCHENER — Over the years, CBRE has helped many of its local commercial real estate clients find new space in a converted factory on Victoria Street.

Now, it’s making that move itself.

CBRE Waterloo Region’s 33 employees expect to move into a 7,000-square-foot office on the second floor at 72 Victoria St. S. in October.

“For us, it was a no-brainer,” said Peter Whatmore, managing director of CBRE in southwestern Ontario.

“Victoria and Joseph (streets) is really centre ice within the important tech hub of KitchenerWaterloo.”

The firm isn’t moving far — the Waterloo Region office is currently located in a 5,400square-foot office in the Galleria building at 101 Frederick St. in downtown Kitchener.

But the lease on that office — which CBRE has occupied for about 20 years — is coming up, and Whatmore said that presented the perfect opportunity to create a technology-driven “flagship” it can showcase to their clients.

“We advise our clients every day about how the power of great real estate can have a transformative impact on business,” he said. “Here we are doing it ourselves.”

The Waterloo Region office serves the region and surrounding communities including Guelph, Stratford and Brantford.

When renovations commenced in 1999 at the Victoria Street building, it was one of the first industrial conversion projects in Kitchener. Built in the early 1900s, the building used to house the Interior Hardwood Co., which made wooden seats for theatres and arenas.

It’s now owned by Allied Properties REIT, which also owns the

Tannery building and a 50 per cent stake in the Breithaupt Block development.

Allied president Michael Emory said he’s delighted about the pending move.

“For nearly two decades, CBRE has assisted Allied in becoming a leading owner, manager and developer of distinctive urban workspace in Canada,” he said in a news release. “The fact that CBRE has selected a restored heritage building for its flagship tech space in Canada is testament to the transformation of workspace globally.”

CBRE has been busy transforming many of its offices across Canada over the past two years; the Waterloo Region office will be the ninth.

With a focus on “workplace wellness,” the spaces include features such as plentiful natural light, ergonomic sit-stand desks, technology to reduce background noise, and an in-house café that encourages workers to collaborate and socialize away from their desks.

The Victoria Street location will be CBRE’s first brick and beam-style office in Canada, Whatmore said.

Based in Los Angeles, CBRE Group is a commercial real estate services and investment firm with more than 75,000 employees and about 450 offices worldwide.