$500 million committed to a single downtown office

Shopify's Toronto Expansion

Founded in Ottawa, Shopify built its second-biggest presence in Toronto — nine floors of a King Street tower, backed by a half-billion-dollar investment commitment.

The Toronto skyline — Toronto skyline — Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0

Shopify, the e-commerce platform company, moved into Toronto in 2012, opening its first Toronto office at 35 Spadina Avenue in 2014. Though headquartered in Ottawa, Toronto quickly became one of Shopify's largest offices as the company scaled.

A nine-floor commitment

In 2018, Shopify announced plans to expand its Toronto presence with a commitment of up to $500 million, moving into the top nine floors of the King Portland Centre at 620 King Street West, a 15-storey tower designed by Hariri Pontarini. The internal Shopify Facilities Design team worked with Toronto studio Linebox to build out space for more than 400 employees, alongside its existing Spadina and Wellington office.

Sources

Shopify — Shopify Opens New Office in Toronto With Plans to Double Local Workforce by 2022

Continue reading

Eaton Hall, a historic country estate in King City, Ontario

King Township

Unlike its fast-urbanizing York Region neighbours, King Township deliberately stayed rural — protected by the…

Scotiabank Arena

Built on the site of a 1938 postal building, the arena that opened as Air Canada Centre in February 1999…

The historic King Street commercial strip in downtown Bowmanville, Ontario

Clarington

Formed from Clarke and Darlington townships in 1974, Clarington is home to a last-largely-intact WWII POW…

Loblaw Groceterias Limited's original store No. 1 on Dundas Street West, Toronto, circa 1919

Loblaws

In 1919, two Toronto grocers let customers pick goods off the shelf themselves — a radical idea at the time.…

Browse all Toronto Guide topics → Browse the slang dictionary → Read the history of Toronto slang →