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Farhi Holdings Corporation, London Small Business Centre and TechAlliance announce ambitious redevelopment of London Free Press building at 369 York St. Posted by The London Free Press on Friday, March 16, 2018

Farhi, who’s contributing more than $20 million to the major overhaul, said he’d like to see Venture London’s first tenants settle into the renovated space by late 2018.

The London land developer and investor purchased the London Free Press building from the newspaper’s parent company, Postmedia, last year.

The redevelopment of the 180,000-square-foot building at 369 York St. will ramp up, Farhi said, once the London Free Press moves out to its new location at 210 Dundas St., the former site of Pathways Skills Development. A moving date has not been set.

“This project is going to take some time,” Farhi said. But he is confident it will help to “to make our downtown a world-class, vibrant core.”

The reimagined Free Press building will include street-level green space, indoor event space, a rooftop patio and an on-site catering facility. Future plans include spots for cafés and retail storefronts and sprawling windows overlooking York Street.

Farhi said he has tenants already lined up for the brand new tech hub and is in talks with several more. He’s not ruling out applying to the provincial and federal governments for assistance on the multimillion-dollar redevelopment.

TechAlliance and the London Small Business Centre will anchor the incubator’s ground floor, working together to connect entrepreneurs with management resources, corporate services and workshops.

“The community has been asking for a hub, and I’ve been wanting one for a long time as well, because we’ve all seen what it means for our communities when they focus their entrepreneurial supports,” said Marilyn Sinclair, president of TechAlliance.