Rogers planning new $100-million campus in Brampton downtown

Brampton City Council is backing Rogers’ plan to build a new office complex in the heart of downtown Brampton.

Rogers wants to build a new $100-million, 200,000-square-foot office complex adjacent to the Brampton GO station, and says the development would include residential, retail and additional office spaces.

The Canadian communications company also wants to redevelop the site of its current offices on Dixie Road to include 25 acres of residential development space up to 1.2 million square feet of industrial and warehouse space.

At a council meeting on Wednesday, Rogers presented its plan and asked for the city’s support in requesting two Minister’s Zoning Orders (MZOs) from the province to rezone the site of the proposed complex and its current offices.

The proposed site of the new campus is owned by Metrolinx, with Rogers aiming to purchase the land from the province.

Rogers vice-president of corporate real estate John Mallovy said the complex would result in “thousands of high-paying technology jobs being retained in Brampton,” and said the site “is essential to Rogers’ ability to make a long-term investment in a new Brampton campus.”

Council unanimously voted to back Rogers’ proposal and to champion the MZO requests to Queen’s Park.

Mayor Patrick Brown called the new proposal “incredible news,” saying the campus could be a catalyst for more investment in downtwon Brampton.

Brampton business advocates including the Downtown Brampton BIA and Brampton Board of Trade threw their support behind the project on Wednesday.

Suzy Godefroy, executive director of the BIA, said the proposed development is an opportunity for the city and that the BIA fully supports council requesting an MZO from the province.

“With this investment in our people and community we will see an increase in jobs and economic growth, specifically for our downtown core,” she said in a letter to council.

The site of the proposed new Rogers campus was previously slated for a Ryerson University satellite campus, but funding for the project was scrapped by the province in 2018.

Editor’s note: An earlier version of this story mispelled Godefroy as “Godfrey.”