Deal gives 700 Bell jobs new lease on life

DOWNTOWN LONDON: Realtor credits Farhi for saving positions with crucial agreement

By NORMAN DE BONO, The London Free Press

Bell Canada is staying in downtown London and so are its 700 workers.

The national communications giant has renewed its lease at its Dundas St. office tower, ending the risk it’ll move out of the city.

Bell Canada has been locked up for the future those jobs have been saved in the city, Mayor Joe Fontana said Tuesday.

The building is owned by London developer Shmuel Farhi, who confirmed the signing, but declined further comment.

Under the agreement, Bell will maintain its presence on five floors, said George Georgopoulos, a ReMax Advantage realtor and Farhi business adviser.

We see large companies leaving London all the time, but Shmuel Farhi has saved 700 jobs in downtown London, said Georgopoulos.

This is a critical, critical deal for the city. We are talking hundreds of thousands of square feet of commercial real estate, 700 good-paying jobs in the core. It was big.

Bell spokesperson Jacqueline Michelis declined comment.

But others in London have been buzzing about the agreement.

It’s done, it is a done deal, said Georgopoulos. I understand both parties are very pleased.

The issue flared up in October when Farhi raised the possibility of closing the half-empty building at 100 Dundas St. if the city didn’t lease two floors from him there.

Closing the building would have meant Bell could have moved the workers to another city, including Kitchener, Hamilton and St. Catharines where the company has office space.

Bell wanted the flexibility to reduce its space to three floors from five in the eight-storey building to save money.

Any deal that saves jobs is significant, said George Kerhoulas, commercial realtor with Cushman Wakefield LePage.

Tenancy like Bell’s is vital, considering we have the highest downtown office vacancy rates in the country. We have to do whatever we can to preserve jobs.

The lease with Bell was to expire in 2012

Farhi had proposed moving city hall, or some offices, to the Bell building. It has 360,000 sq. ft of space, 250,000 sq. ft. of which is available.

The existing City Hall on Dufferin Avenue is 120,000 sq. ft., overcrowded, and filled with asbestos, so the city has been looking at office-space options. Some estimates have put the cost of building a new City Hall at $80 million.

The city had offered to buy the Bell building from Farhi, but he prefers to lease. The deal with Bell doesn’t kill city interest in the Bell building and all options, including leasing space, remain on the table, said Mayor Joe Fontana:It is not dead but it is one of many options we will look at.