The 150-year-old heritage building at King and Spadina, most well-known as the former site of the Global Village Backpackers hostel, will be repurposed into a professional space including a cafe, a restaurant, and an office for Konrad Group.
According to BlogTO, the office space for Konrad Group will be dedicated to BrainStation, and the building overall will be attractive to those in the tech startup space. Besides offering its usual courses, workshops, and training in web and mobile development, the unveiling will also see the launch of BrainStation Spaces.
BrainStation Spaces will be a new shared office space for industry professionals and freelancers to work and benefit from a creative network at the King West space. Besides nightly events and workshops, BrainStation Spaces will also include a community manager, conference rooms, event spaces, and locker and storage.
But this tech hub wouldn’t be complete without a coffee shop well-suited to the demands of startup employees; Quantum Coffee, the coffee shop of the building, will include Canada’s first app-enabled pour over machine, and an order-ahead mobile payments system.
“The space will be an incredible place for creative and digital minds to connect. BrainStation is about helping people get involved with the digital world,” said Geordie Konrad, Co-CEO of Konrad Group. “We felt that the building needed to be designed as one cohesive hub — that’s why we are going to be launching Quantum Coffee on the main floor. We wanted a hospitality offering that fit with the culture and environment that we are building.”
Architectural plans for the 20,000 square foot property, which was first opened in 1875, include a Tudor style for the southern building, and a glass addition to the west side of the building.
Image courtesy BlogTO.