Alphabet Subsidiary Sidewalk Labs Abandons Toronto 'Smart City' Project
May 07 2020 - 12:35PM
Dow Jones News
By Vipal Monga
TORONTO -- Alphabet Inc.'s subsidiary Sidewalks Labs on Thursday
announced it is abandoning a project to develop a "smart city" in a
Toronto neighborhood.
Citing the economic uncertainty and harm to Toronto's
real-estate market caused by the coronavirus pandemic, the
company's CEO, Dan Doctoroff, said the company is walking away from
the plan after spending 2 1/2 years negotiating the
development.
"It has become too difficult to make the 12-acre project
financially viable without sacrificing core parts of the plan we
had developed together with Waterfront Toronto to build a truly
inclusive, sustainable community," he said in a blog post.
Sidewalk notified Waterfront Toronto, the Canadian government
entity running the project, of its decision on Wednesday. Sidewalk,
which employs 30 people in the city, will keep its Toronto office
and will redeploy as many of its staff as possible to other
projects, said a spokeswoman.
Sidewalk was selected as Waterfront Toronto's development
partner in 2017, in a bid to build a futuristic neighborhood on a
12-acre parcel of land along Toronto's waterfront. The plan
envisioned a climate friendly neighborhood where sensors embedded
in traffic lights and garbage bins tracked residents and responded
to their needs.
The project, which was initially championed by Canadian Prime
Minister Justin Trudeau, quickly ran into local opposition.
Activists said they were concerned how Sidewalk, whose parent also
owns Google, would handle personal data.
Though the project was delayed by opposition and fears that the
company was overreaching with proposals that went beyond its
initial project, the board of Waterfront Toronto last year agreed
to continue negotiations over a final agreement, with a decision
expected to come in June.
The Toronto waterfront development was Sidewalk's biggest
project since Mr. Doctoroff launched the business in 2015. He had
previously been a deputy mayor for economic development in New York
City and was later chief executive of Bloomberg LP
Write to Vipal Monga at vipal.monga@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
May 07, 2020 12:20 ET (16:20 GMT)
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