Broccolini Corporate Center breaks ground in Montreal’s Technoparc

Technoparc Montreal scored another coup with the news a class-A office building is under construction in the business park and has already attracted at least one corporate head office.

Real estate developer Broccolini is contructing Broccolini Corporate Center Saint-Laurent 2, a 135,000-square-foot multi-tenant office that will aim for a LEED Silver certification according to a company news release. When the building is finished in the spring of 2015, Hospira Healthcare Corporation will become its anchor tenant.

Hospira is currently located in the Montreal borough of Saint-Laurent. Its relocation to the business park will position it within the Technoparc's health sciences cluster.

"The arrival of Hospira in the Technoparc Montreal's Saint-Laurent Campus will further strengthen Montreal's leadership in the generic pharmaceutical industry," Technoparc president/CEO Mario Monette said in a statement.

"The company complements the variety of pharmaceutical companies already present in the Technoparc, which ranges from R & D to commercialization."

The new building's location offers close proximity to public transportation as well as to the Montreal-Trudeau International Airport.

The five-storey edifice will include a full service cafeteria, a shared gym for tenants, a green roof and an outside terrace and will be completed for a cost of $30 million.

The Broccolini Corporate Center represents the firm's second project in the Technoparc. In all, Broccolini has completed more than 40 projects on the West Island.

The Technoparc

For the Technoparc, attracting Hospira – a major player in the generic pharmaceutical industry – is just the most recent triumph for the steadily expanding business park. Established in 1987, the park officially welcomed its first international company in 1996.

At that time, a Swedish pharmaceutical firm, Astra, invested $330 million to take over 500,000 sq. ft. of space in the park as well as building a 100,000-sq.-ft. structure.

Today, the Saint-Laurent campus has 65 companies that work in the sectors of aerospace, life sciences, information and communications technology and cleantech and nanotechnologies. Together the firms employ nearly 5,000 people and represent close to $2 billion in investments.

The campus is 20 minutes from downtown Montreal.

Industry-specific campuses

A number of industry-specific campuses are located within the Technoparc. They include the Eco-Campus Hubert Reeves, which is an international technology portal dedicated to clean technologies and sustainable development; and Cloud Montreal which has three sophisticated data centres that use green technology to help reduce energy costs.

The business park also has an aerospace cluster as well as a biopharmaceutical research hub known as the Institute Neomed. Companies involved in the venture include AstraZeneca Canada, Pfizer Canada, and the Quebec government.

The Technoparc is also a partner in the Health District in the eastern part of downtown Montreal. A new hospital and research centre are under construction there and a number of other research initiatives are joining together to create an innovation and healthcare hub.

The Technoparc also has a number of amenities, including a business centre with meeting rooms, a fitness facility and a full service restaurant.