Deloitte recently decided to undergo a major real estate transformation to provide a more innovative environment for 9,400 employees across Canada.
In Montreal, that decision will unite the city’s largest financial services team in one space in about three years.
“We really want to embrace some of the best practices in workplace environments,” says Sheila Botting, Deloitte partner & national leader of real estate and financial advisory who is in charge of renewing about a million square feet of space across the country for the firm.
“Every time there’s a lease expiry, you have to make a decision to stay where you are, upgrade or move. In Montreal we did about 30 different scenarios, but now that we’re embarking upon a workplace transformation, it’s very difficult to do that in our existing space. It’s much easier to move to a brand new space or a new building to do that. We’ll transition from a traditional office space environment to a downtown campus.”
The downtown campus will consist of 160,000 square feet in Cadillac Fairview’s planned 32-floor skyscraper to be named the Deloitte Tower. Botting likes that construction will meet LEED platinum standards, with upgraded h-vac systems, extensive column-free space and other resource economies.
The interior design for the space is still underway, but priorities include open spaces for collaboration, the use of high technology everywhere and physical amenities that appeal to employees, such as a ground floor café and lots of light.
Note: This article appeared on page 24 in the Spring 2013 Real Estate Forum magazine, which can be read at: http://www.realestateforums.com/crefm/docs/!_REF_SPRING_2013_Montreal.pdf.
