The Breithaupt Block Phase III | 11 fl | U/C

[taylortbb]

Second largest outside the bay area, the largest outside the bay area is NYC.

Also, my comment was engineering only. NYC has a lot of non-engineering teams, while KW is almost entirely engineering. Other offices I assume are similar to NYC, whereas here they do non-engineering things in Toronto.

Still nah; Zurich has 2K+; Taipei has 2K+. Possibly others I don't remember.

The Zurich one reports total headcount, not engineering headcount. BetaKit's coverage of this expansion said second largest engineering outside Bay Area, https://betakit.com/google-to-double-the...ng-office/ .

It does like like the HTC acquisition might have moved it ahead though, BetaKit did say as of 2017, so perhaps second largest software engineering location outside the bay.

Is it a given that a future Phase IV would be Google space?

No, it could be anyone, but I'd guess anyone not-Google would be much more interested in somewhere like 345 King. It seems like it'd be an odd choice, if you're already building a new building, to do it basically in the middle of Google's campus.

[Spokes]

Wouldn't there be appeal to being so close to Google? Similar to when Google was in the Tannery?

[robdrimmie]

Wouldn't there be appeal to being so close to Google?  Similar to when Google was in the Tannery?

Google's presence in the Tannery was super important for sure, but other than (considerable!) financial support and engagement with Communitech at fairly high levels (Steven Woods who runs the local office is on their board), Google as an entity is not an especially active presence in the community - the broad Waterloo Region one or the narrower tech ecosystem. They have considerable impact on high level strategy, but minimal direct influence on day-to-day lives.

I'm absolutely biased as a result of working for Communitech, but I believe it was their move to the Tannery  that focused so much tech community attention on downtown Kitchener. From 2008 to 2010 it was extremely difficult to attract a group to a DTK venue for tech community events. Uptown Waterloo and the Accelerator Centre (where Communitech's offices were before they moved) were the primary places where the community hung out. My recollection (as faulty as any other humans) is that it was like everyone's focus shifted to DTK from late 2010 through 2011 but it's probably a lot more accurate to say that my focus shifted during that period, and I believe that is the result of Communitech's efforts, and I believe a lot of others were impacted in a similar way.

Because Google provides so much for its employees, getting people to leave their offices and engage regularly with the sorts of businesses that typically target the daytime workforce is very difficult. For any business that isn't open to the public on a day to day basis (like, a tech or insurance company as opposed to a cafe or boutique clothing store) being located proximate to Google offers nothing. If anything, I suspect that having their employees see what Google gets every day would be very off-putting to many employers.

[jeffster]

Wouldn't there be appeal to being so close to Google?  Similar to when Google was in the Tannery?

Google's presence in the Tannery was super important for sure, but other than (considerable!) financial support and engagement with Communitech at fairly high levels (Steven Woods who runs the local office is on their board), Google as an entity is not an especially active presence in the community - the broad Waterloo Region one or the narrower tech ecosystem. They have considerable impact on high level strategy, but minimal direct influence on day-to-day lives.

I'm absolutely biased as a result of working for Communitech, but I believe it was their move to the Tannery  that focused so much tech community attention on downtown Kitchener. From 2008 to 2010 it was extremely difficult to attract a group to a DTK venue for tech community events. Uptown Waterloo and the Accelerator Centre (where Communitech's offices were before they moved) were the primary places where the community hung out. My recollection (as faulty as any other humans) is that it was like everyone's focus shifted to DTK from late 2010 through 2011 but it's probably a lot more accurate to say that my focus shifted during that period, and I believe that is the result of Communitech's efforts, and I believe a lot of others were impacted in a similar way.

Because Google provides so much for its employees, getting people to leave their offices and engage regularly with the sorts of businesses that typically target the daytime workforce is very difficult. For any business that isn't open to the public on a day to day basis (like, a tech or insurance company as opposed to a cafe or boutique clothing store) being located proximate to Google offers nothing. If anything, I suspect that having their employees see what Google gets every day would be very off-putting to many employers.

Your recollections seems fairly accurate. It seemed to be a while before DTK started to take off. I can't say that I know where or what the turning point was, but I always believed that Google played a huge role in that, and Kaufmann condo's before that helped. That being said, DTK always had a lot of potential, due to its size and everything.

It still has a ways to go, IMHO, but as I said, it's turned the corner for the good. The only thing that will hold it back is imagination or certain councillors.

[taylortbb]

A post on NextDoor had the site plan doc for the parking garage. Looks like it's going at Joseph and Stewart, behind the Bramm St yards. They're working with the city to build a trail connection along the CN tracks to the building, so it looks like Perimeter/Google will be funding part of a Iron Horse to Transit Hub trail, including with lighting.

   

[panamaniac]

At 470 spaces, how will this compare in size to the Charles/Benton garage?

[taylortbb]

At 470 spaces, how will this compare in size to the Charles/Benton garage?

According to https://www.therecord.com/news-story/809...d-another/ the Charles/Benton garage is 500 spots.

[rangersfan]

Thanks for posting that Taylortbb.

[MidTowner]

Councillor Chapman is right to question how much traffic would use Stewart Street. Even a small component of it would be pretty impactful for that dead-end street, and that part of Park Street.

I wonder what the new walking connection will be like between Stewart and King.

[ijmorlan]

A post on NextDoor had the site plan doc for the parking garage.

Do you have a link to the site plan? I’m having trouble understanding exactly how it is intended to fit in.

[panamaniac]

Councillor Chapman is right to question how much traffic would use Stewart Street. Even a small component of it would be pretty impactful for that dead-end street, and that part of Park Street.

I wonder what the new walking connection will be like between Stewart and King.

Other than perhaps requiring a new traffic light at the T intersection, what would the impact be?

[MidTowner]

Actually, I was specifically thinking that the intersection might need to be controlled, depending on how much traffic there was. Of course, it could be a huge impact to those few houses on that street.

On reflection, though, it was a bit of a bone-headed thing to say. If anything, we need more through streets, and either connecting Joseph to Stewart (though this won't do that) or extending Wellington through OSC if it ever moves would probably make a lot of sense.

[taylortbb]

A post on NextDoor had the site plan doc for the parking garage.

Do you have a link to the site plan? I’m having trouble understanding exactly how it is intended to fit in.

Nope, site plan approval is generally not a public process. I have no idea how that doc I posted made it to NextDoor, probably someone living on Stewart St.

[panamaniac]

The proposed garage site would be at the very end of Stewart, to the "north" of the spur line?

[kps]

From the earlier link that said ‘two lots total 94,000ft³’ and matching up to the Kitchener GIS map, it must be 305 Joseph St plus 2–4 Stewart St, i.e. from the end of Stewart into the junction triangle.