Microsoft Canada has announced plans for new headquarters located in downtown Toronto. Comprising 132,000 square feet over four floors of the building, located at 81 Bay Street, construction is well underway with occupancy expected for September 2020.

Microsoft says moving to CIBC SQUARE — a project by Ivanhoé Cambridge and Hines — will allow the company to better serve its customers, collaborate with its technology partners and to attract top talent to a central location, one well served by transit and more accessible to universities and innovative new tech start-ups. The relocation is just one of a series of investments Microsoft is making in Canada over the next four years.

“Increasingly, Canada is being recognized as a global leader in technology and the investments we are making today and into the future will help ensure Canada continues to be a hotbed of innovation,” said Microsoft Canada President Kevin Peesker.

“By relocating our headquarters to downtown Toronto, we will be able to better serve our customers and attract top talent to continue to drive innovation and growth for our Canadian customers and our large partner ecosystem.”

Currently, Microsoft employs more than 2,300 employees across Canada, and supports an extended ecosystem of more than 14,000 trusted partners who sell, service or deploy Microsoft products. The company expects that given the pace of technology and the investments it is making that the Microsoft ecosystem could account for more than 60,000 new jobs by the time its new headquarters opens in two years.

 Investments in Canada include:

• $111M in Azure credits into the startup ecosystem by supporting 5,700 start-ups
• Donating more than $178 million in cash, software and technology services to Canadian non-profits; and
• enabling employees to contribute up to 100,000 person-hours annually of volunteer time in support of worthy causes, representing an equivalent dollar value of $10million

Microsoft Canada also intends to:

• Grow staff by more than 500 full-time employees, with an additional 500 co-ops/internships by 2022
• invest $21 M in Azure credits to Canada’s Supercluster initiative
• invest $10M over 5 years into Cascadia innovation corridor which is formed between Washington and British Columbia to create new economic opportunities; and
• invest more than $570M in next 3 years in fixed assets in the country, including relocation and expansion of its research and development lab in Montreal, relocation of its Vancouver sales office, renovation and redesign of its Ottawa, Calgary and Montreal sales offices, and the relocation of its Canadian headquarters.

Photo by Ivanhoé Cambridge