Less than a week before the sod was to be turned for a new Calgary wireless design centre, Panasonic has put the project on hold.
The last-minute decision by Panasonic, part of the huge Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. of Japan, to postpone the building start has left its Calgary office scrambling to call off Thursday’s ground-breaking event.
“They’re re-evaluating their facility needs,” confirmed builder Larry Mason, president of Remington Development Corporation. “It’s a positive from our standpoint, because it’s probably going to be more than we anticipated.”
While it’s a certainty that the planned $12-million building, to be located at 8th Street and 72 Avenue N.E. will go ahead, the timeline is now firmly up in the air. Initial plans called for the three-storey structure to house 175 employees in more than 75,000 square feet, including a 6,000 sq. ft. health club.
“I feel like I’ve been kicked,” admitted Michael Wuerstl, director of Calgary operations for the Panasonic Wireless Design Centre. “We were all ready to go with this, and they were out in Japan to get that lease signed over the weekend, and then all these questions came up. They said: ‘We don’t want to sign until we know for sure that it’s going to be big enough.’
“I’m busting at the rims here in the facility I now have. I’ve got 40 people here, and I can’t hire any more, so we need a bigger facility.”
While the project is temporarily on hold — Panasonic officials will meet today to discuss plans, and have been “explicitly” reminded of construction constraints on frozen ground — the city should still be proud of the planned new facility, said Wuerstl.
“The fact that Panasonic chose Calgary says a lot about Calgary,” he added, noting the skilled workforce, the university’s engineering program and the competitive wireless environment were big draws.
The new facility will focus on the development of third generation wireless software technology.
