Cochrane celebrates opening of Garmin Canada’s headquarters
In pursuit of economic diversification, towns and cities across North America are competing with each other to lure technology firms to their jurisdiction and become the next hub for tech jobs and investment dollars.
But while much larger municipalities tout their attributes to Silicon Valley executives, the town of Cochrane has quietly gotten a leg up on the competition — thanks in large part to a homegrown success story that is putting the bedroom community west of Calgary on the technological map.
On Tuesday, politicians and local business leaders celebrated the grand opening of Garmin Canada’s new headquarters, a 45,000-square-foot facility in the heart of downtown Cochrane. The
Part of it is just being stubborn and believing that it can be done, and having the determination to keep at it.
new facility — where approximately 100 engineers and support staff design and develop fitness, outdoor and wireless products for tech giant Garmin — is a testament to the rapid growth of the company, and also represents the community’s hopes for its future.
“They have high-paying jobs, it’s a clean industry, it’s diversifying our economy … it’s been a goodnews story all around,” said Cochrane Mayor Jeff Genung.
“We are really hoping to build on this and are positioning ourselves to be a tech hub.”
The company that is now Garmin Canada got its start in 1998 as a Cochrane-based tech startup called Dynastream Innovations. That startup — which developed wireless connectivity standard ANT along with fitness products and sensing technologies — went on to be acquired by Garmin in 2006. After nearly 12 years of operating as a wholly owned subsidiary of Garmin, Dynastream Innovations became Garmin Canada in July 2018.
Over the years, the company has outgrown six buildings in Cochrane, and its seventh — the new headquarters opened Tuesday — is designed for future growth, with a capacity for more than 200 employees and the ability to add a third floor if necessary.
Garmin Canada managing director Jim Rooney — who, along with a handful of business partners, founded Dynastream 20 years ago in his garage — said Garmin is committed to Cochrane for the long haul. He said Cochrane’s proximity to the mountains has always been a selling point for the company.
“We build products for fitness enthusiasts and for getting outdoors and being active, and we really want to live in a place where we can do that,” he said.
Rooney added that in today ’s interconnected world, it’s possible to grow a tech company from any geographic location.
“Part of it is just being stubborn and believing that it can be done, and having the determination to keep at it,” he said.
Garmin isn’t the only technology company creating buzz in Cochrane these days. 4iiii Innovations, which also works in the wearable tech space developing products for elite and casual athletes, employs approximately 70 people. 4iiii’s cycling technology has been used in road races around the world, including the Giro d’Italia and the Tour de France.
Genung said as mayor, he travelled to Las Vegas last January to forge connections with some of the more than 900 startup tech companies in attendance at the 2018 Consumer Technology Association Conference.
“I wanted to ask them, what would it take for you to relocate to a community like Cochrane?” he said. “Not necessarily to attract any of them that day, but just to create a checklist that we could start working on.”
Cochrane is currently making investments in its fibre-optic network and is exploring the idea of creating a business and innovation centre for technology companies, Genung added, but also needs to focus on recreation, the public library and other attributes that will position the community as a place where tech firms will want to set up shop.
“Employee attraction and retention is key. You want to build a community that employers can attract employees to,” Genung said.