BlackBerry Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) (TSE:BB) had a building in Bedford, which is to be redeveloped into a high-tech commercial campus. The Armour Group has plans of investing $200 million in the project which will is called EON Square. On Thursday, the said project was unveiled at the Innovation Drive site.
BlackBerry former campus to get a new identity
The new commercial area to be developed will include the former BlackBerry Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) (TSE:BB) building, and also 20 hectares of area more. About the project, Armour CEO Scott McCrea says, “We envision EON Square as a centre of excellence, propelling future-oriented sectors to expand, supporting local talent and attracting future growth.”
The site will include a new Bell Aliant data centre, and will be spread across one million square feet of commercial space. The existing centre of the BCE subsidiary in the BlackBerry Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) (TSE:BB) building will be upgraded for which it will spend $7 million, as announced by it on Thursday. The Bedford location has IBM Canada as one of its tenants and there are more than 250 employees at the location.
Another building is being built at the same campus by Halifax-based Armour, which has reached almost completion. It is expected that by the end of 2015, the construction of the 120,000 square feet building will be completed, which is going to be a seven storied structure.
EON Square will have a hotel, restaurant and retail space along with six or seven new office buildings at the site, says developer. Armour says that in the east of Toronto the project will be the largest campus of its kind.
BlackBerry in better shape now
The building does signify the struggle that BlackBerry has been witnessing over the past few years, but now the situation is much better. Last year, many experts had already concluded that BlackBerry Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) (TSE:BB) won’t survive for long as the cash flows were really unstable. Recently, President of global enterprise services, John Sims, said that around a year back the turnaround process for the company was started by the management, and within the first three months the company spent $1 billion for the same, and at that time many doubted the company’s existence.
BlackBerry Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) (TSE:BB) efforts have paid off well and the company has gotten over the risk of closing down. The cash balance of the company has reached a good level and this is a significant milestone for the Canadian smartphone maker, informed Sims.
