Google abandoned its smart-city development
in Toronto after more than two years of
controversy over privacy concerns and amid
economic uncertainty caused by the pandemic.
A unit of Google’s parent company Alphabet
had been proposing to turn a rundown
part of Toronto’s waterfront into a wired
community, but Sidewalk Labs chief executive
Dan Doctoroff said in a statement that it is no
longer financially viable.
“As unprecedented economic uncertainty has
set in around the world and in the Toronto
real estate market, it has become too difficult
to make the project financially viable without
sacrificing core parts of the plan,” Doctoroff said.
Sidewalk Labs had partnered with a government
agency known as Waterfront Toronto with plans
to erect mid-rise apartments, offices, shops and
a school on a 12-acre (4.9-hectare) site — a first
step toward what it hoped would eventually be
a 800-acre (325-hectare) development.
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