Allied Properties REIT to lease part of CBC building
The Canadian Broadcasting Centre has found a novel way to help fill its Toronto headquarters, leasing empty space to a company that plans to use it to house servers and other telecommunications infrastructure.
Allied Properties Real Estate Investment Trust said it will invest $30-million in the downtown Toronto building, as it renovates some 168,000 square feet of space to make way for the telecommunications gear that help the city’s downtown businesses access the Internet.
The 1.5 million square foot building has been sitting about a third empty for years, as cutbacks at the public broadcaster have reduced its need for space. It has had difficulty leasing the space because zoning rules restrict it to government employees – but having it serve as a data hub gets around those issues.