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“People were placing big bets in terms of the private sector on what was going to happen down here,” said Will Fleissig, chief executive of Waterfront Toronto, in an interview.

“But this was mostly our land, the waterfront, so we had a chance to create this idea of a test bed. Let’s try some new things, try some new partnerships and see if this idea of bringing people in earlier rather than us coming up with a plan and asking the private sector to respond.”

Waterfront Toronto issued its RFP in March to find a partner to help solve urban issues and work together from the ground up. In the end, there were three final proposals that went into the next round, each with “very deep discussions,” Fleissig said.

After visiting sample sites or projects and bringing in a selection committee with third party experts, the recommendation was to go with Sidewalk Labs’ proposal and Waterfront Toronto’s board approved.

“Now we are developing a plan. There is no land involved at this point,” he said. “These are initial ideas that these guys have put out, but what does everyone else think? How would they like to hook into this?”

Tuesday’s seemingly daunting announcement is possible and great for the city, according to Matti Siemiatycki, an associate professor at the University of Toronto’s department of geography and planning.

“There is major development by a number of large multinational corporations already investing (in the waterfront), so I think the scale is feasible,” he said. “What’s really interesting and exciting is the new possibilities of having companies like Google and Sidewalk involved, because with that technology we aren’t just building the city of yesterday, we are really trying to understand how to build the city of tomorrow.”