A bird’s-eye view of the Eagle Street Industrial Park, that is being built to the Zero Carbon Building Design standard. (Courtesy Crillion Investment Corporation)
There’s an industrial building going up right now in Cambridge, Ont. that will be the first in the province to get certified under version 3 of the Canada Green Building Council’s Zero Carbon Building Design standard, says one of its investors.
The Eagle Street Industrial Park covers 158,000 square feet and plans to include efficient heat pumps made for cold weather, electric vehicle charging stations, plus low-carbon steel and concrete for construction. They’re also preparing it so a solar roof can be added later on.
“Even though (we) could have just stuck with the status quo and just built to a traditional commercial-industrial standard, (we) decided to be outliers in the space and really try to push the frontier of zero-carbon,” Michael R. Hilson, vice-president of investments at Toronto-based Crillion Investment Corporation, told Sustainable Biz Canada in an interview.
Crillion is a private family-owned office and one of five private equity investors in the limited partnership that co-owns this property; it holds one of two major equity stakes.
Sitting on nearly 30 acres with two existing buildings already there, Eagle Street is meant to be a key part of Crillion’s holdings as well as a leader in industrial development.
Aiming beyond typical standards
Among all partners involved, Crillon-founded by Hilson’s dad Mark-is most hands-on with daily operations and construction at Eagle Park. This project marks their first real step into construction work, he said.
The land was bought back in 2018. It’s just three minutes from Highway 401 and got snapped up at a good price – making it an easy call for investment according to Hilson.
Sustainability isn’t usually top-of-mind for most property investors, Hilson noted: “A lot of people simply don’t care. It’s not front of mind for them. They’re fixated on profits and are very short-term oriented.”
But Crillion and Eagle Park’s backers think differently. They believe green building is where things are heading, so they wanted their money aligned with those values. Sure there’s about a 20% extra cost for zero-carbon features but they hope it pays off down the line.
“There’s a risk at being at the forefront of change. For a lot of guys, it’s easier to go with the status quo, it’s cheaper, less risky. However, for us, we’re interested in owning and operating this property forever. We have zero interest in selling the property.”
An unexpected thing Hilson noticed during investor meetings was older executives-in their late 50s or 60s-talking seriously about how to hit zero-carbon goals. He figured these folks wouldn’t focus much on green stuff but actually saw quite the opposite.
The build began in 2024; foundations are poured already along with structural steel going up plus precast panels installed. They expect leasing will start by Q2 2025.
The making of Ontario’s first zero-carbon industrial space
Putting together Eagle Street’s plan taught Hilson plenty along the way – chatting with geothermal experts and solar providers helped him grasp sustainability better.
The final design calls for air-source heat pumps from Daikin-a Japanese company-that work well even when it’s cold outside. About 95% of heating and cooling will come from these electric units year-round; natural gas backup kicks in only during extreme cold snaps. Plus these heat pumps clean indoor air too which cuts power needs further.
This kind of setup hasn’t been done anywhere else across North America yet according to Hilson.
Eagle Street will also have charging stations ready both for cars and trucks plus engineered thermal breaks around connecting points designed to keep energy inside better.
The steel and concrete used come mostly from recycled materials since reducing embodied carbon was key per Zero Carbon Building rules-for instance concrete uses bits taken from demolished buildings while steel comes from Cooksville Steel; Heidelberg Materials supplies concrete here too.
This recycling cuts down embodied carbon by over thirty percent roughly according to Hilson.
A solar roof installation is planned within five to ten years which would make this building fully powered by renewables-and might even feed extra electricity back into local grids someday soon after that happens.
The big goal overall? Slash greenhouse gas emissions intensity by about eighty-two percent while lowering electricity use twenty-seven percent compared with average industrial buildings out there today.
This approach lets them attract multinational manufacturers who value strong sustainability credentials when looking for space , says Hilson.
Beyond this site , Crillion wants more land where they can push version four standards-the newer Zero Carbon Building Design target expected around 2026-27-and maybe retrofit other industrial sites too aiming for zero carbon upgrades.
“We really have no interest in sticking to the status quo.”
