Markham’s New Tech Zone
Posted By: Rachel Kavanagh
Markham’s New Tech Zone – It is no secret the city of Markham is a high-tech hub. The city made an attempt to be the location for Amazon’s next headquarters and now it is launching a new 1,920-acre tech zone.
On May 21, at the International Collision Conference in Toronto, the city announced that it has set aside a plot of land for a new Markham Innovation Exchange (MIX), in the city’s northwest corner.
The location will be bordered by Highway 404 to the west, 19th Avenue to the north, Warden Avenue to the east and Elgin Mills Road to the south. The site is minutes from Pearson International Airport, close to Highway 407 and also announced is regular GO service every 20-minutes that connects workers to the downtown area.
When completed, Markham’s MIX will be one of the largest innovation districts of its kind in all of North America having a significant global impact.
Mayor Frank Scarpitti indicated, “it will be a community where people want to come to work, where they’ll rush to come to work, because of the urban design in the area, the internal spaces that will be created and because of some of the amenities that will be in close proximity to this area.”
He is not the only one that is excited about the news, Mark Cohon, Chair of Toronto Global, the organization that pitched for Amazon’s second headquarters stated, “when you create a new innovation hub like this it creates a great story for the entire region.”
Markham has so much going on already with 1,500 high-tech companies, 37,000 people working there, big companies like IBM and Qualcomm. Markham’s high-tech cluster is part of York Region’s 4,300+ ICT companies: highest technology sector concentration in Canada relative to population.
All of this interest has allowed the city of Markham to attract talented individuals and build a community. It creates an innovative and creative economy with endless possibilities.
* Markham’s New Tech Zone – written by Benczik Team Realty
