There seems to be a trend in Montreal of repurposing some of our city’s older and more obsolete buildings for tech.

First there was Crew/Unsplash, which remodeled the old RBC building into a beautiful co-working space and cafe (as well as their own headquarters).

Now, eStructure Data Centers Inc has acquired the Montreal Gazette‘s former printing facility with plans to convert it into a data centre with 30 megawatts of power capacity.

The $150 million investment will allow the Québec-based company to pursue growth, while providing its customers with a world-class infrastructure and unique proximity to downtown Montréal.

EStruxture, a Montréal-based network and cloud-neutral data centre operator, said the deal is part of its strategy to expand and acquire data centres across Canada. Earlier this year, eStruxture secured $80 million in financing from Canderel and Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec and announced its first buy, Netelligent Hosting Services. The company is also backed by Fengate Real Asset Investments.

“As part of our strategy to expand and acquire data centers nationally, we are thrilled to breathe new life into this historic building, whose size and strategic location offer the perfect site to better serve the growing IT services industry in Montréal and around the world. The conversion of this printing facility is great news for Montreal as well as a compelling demonstration of the city’s transition to the digital economy”, said Todd Coleman, President and CEO of eStruxture.

The 156,000 square-foot building has been sitting vacant since The Gazette shut it down in 2014. Located on Saint-Jacquest St. in NDG, upgrading and expansion work will begin immediately and is set to open in the spring of 2018. The 30 megawatts of power capacity it will provide is equivalent to a city of 25,000 homes, and will include a redundant fiber loop connecting the site to eStruxture’s existing downtown data center.

“Montréal’s leadership as a digital hub and magnet for data centers is undeniable. International companies, especially from the United States, are increasingly establishing themselves in Montréal to meet their data center needs. We are proud to participate in this economic shift, which comes with job creation and new foreign direct investment”, said Todd Coleman.

This will be eStruxture’s second data centre in Montreal, a decision that reflects the city’s access to clean and affordable energy, a cool climate that limits the amount of energy needed for cooling, a current flourishing digital ecosystem and a strong technology sector with many potential clients, among others.

“With the growth of e-commerce and the digital transformation underway in Québec, companies are facing a steadily rising need to efficiently process and store their cloud data. As such, we are pleased to see eStruxture deepen its roots in Montréal. These new facilities will help the company accelerate its growth in Québec and Canada,” stated Christian Dubé, Executive Vice-President, Québec at la Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec.

The new data center is set to become one of the most important data center facilities in the region.