CAMBRIDGE - Conestoga College wants $500,000 from the city to help fund a new applied research and technology hub in downtown Galt.

The college asked for the cash over a five-year period at the city's budget and audit committee last week.

"All this activity will work as a catalyst to drive the economy," Barbara Fennessy, vice-president of applied research at the college, told the committee on Thursday.

The request comes as the city looks to lower a proposed 4.97 per cent tax hike for 2017.

This college research hub is expected be part of the recently unveiled Gaslight District, a mixed-used development proposed to take over Southworks mall.

College students will work hand-in-hand with local tech companies at the brand new Grand Innovation Centre, set to open in the former Tiger Brand factory.

The centre aspires to be much like Kitchener's Communitech with a focus on robotics, automation and cybersecurity.

Grand Innovation Centre also asked for $500,000 from the city, but over a two-year period instead of five. In total, the joint college-nonprofit research and technology hub wants the city to pitch in $1 million.

Jody Schnarr, who spoke to committee on behalf of the new tech hub, pointed out that Waterloo's Accelerator Centre is an incubator for startups and young talent.

He also pointed out that tech nonprofit Communitech has received more than $1 million in grants from the City of Kitchener.

Why can't Cambridge have a tech hub, too? He asked.

"Our idea is that you, the talent, should be staying here."

Annual operating costs for the centre are expected to come in at around $1 million.

Hip Development purchased the Southworks mall property and its president, Scott Higgins, also rallied on behalf of the new technological innovation centre.

"I think we bled talent," he told the committee.

He said he has felt for a while that Cambridge was losing its young people and he thinks Grand Innovation and the Gaslight District will give young folk reasons to stay.

Higgins also noted the proposed development will bring in lots of property tax revenue for the city, nearly $3 million in city taxes over a five-year period.

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Coun. Mike Mann, the budget committee chair, said the tech hub was a positive sign of industrial transformation in Cambridge - from textiles to tech.

The city's budget committee has met twice to hash out a daunting tax increase for Cambridge households and has asked staff to find savings.

Both funding requests were sent back to staff to examine.