Brownfield incentive program

We work with the Region of Waterloo to help property owners recover the costs required to remediate eligible brownfield sites.

On this page:

1. About the program
2. Redevelopment examples
3. Benefits

About the program

We’ve partnered with the Region of Waterloo to offer financial incentives including:

• reduction in regional development charges
• a joint tax increment grant program

This program allows us to:

• offer tax assistance to developers and property owners to help with the clean-up of eligible brownfield properties
• guide and help you with the planning approvals process
• help you to recover your remediation costs which improves your return on investment

Redevelopment examples

Some of the successful redevelopments that have come about because of our support for brownfield remediation include:

• Kaufman Lofts, a factory-to-loft conversion
• The InTowns - Highland & Queen, a former industrial site now fully developed with town homes
• The Tannery District, now home to the Communitech Hub, Velocity and Desire2Learn
• Breithaupt Block, a factory to office conversion and home of Google

Benefits

By transforming existing buildings, we’re able to:

• support our environmental goals
• support our growth management strategy
• use existing infrastructure
• neighbourhood revitalization

We’re also strengthening our local economy by converting vacant, non-tax-paying assets into productive redevelopments.