Former Blackberry offices could be transformed into thousands of apartments

CTV’s Jeff Pickel shows us what could happen if a former Blackberry building becomes the new home for a series of 40-storey towers.

A former Blackberry site could soon host five large residential towers in Waterloo.

Previously known as Blackberry 6 and Blackberry 7, 180 Columbia Street West has been marked as the potential location for a five-tower apartment building featuring thousands of bedrooms.

The project is helmed by IN8 Developments and they are looking for considerable zoning changes to transform the office buildings into apartment towers.

According to the developer’s proposal, they want to build three 41-storey towers and two 37-storey towers.

If approved as is, the development would include 2,438 units, adding up to a total of 3,206 bedrooms with a mixture of bachelor, one bedroom apartments and two bedroom apartments.

At a City of Waterloo council meeting on Monday, a planner representing IN8 said they will react to market needs when it comes to unit types.

“This does provide a good range - there is about 30 per cent of the rooms would be two bedrooms, they are not all the crammed in bachelor type units, and it’s important to remember this is the zoning approval stage. It’s not locking in unit types. As the project moves through future phases there is the ability to adjust,” said David Galbraith with UP Consulting.

No decisions were made about the project on Monday. The proposal will return to council at a future date.