On May 20, 2016, the Government of Canada, as represented by Defence Construction (1951) Ltd. (Defence Construction Canada) reached financial close with Uptime Infrastructure Partners (UIP) to design, build, finance, operate and maintain Shared Services Canada’s Enterprise Data Centre Borden, located at Canadian Forces Base Borden, Ontario, for the next 25 years.
The contract is valued at $322 million, which will cover the cost of construction, building maintenance and operations, and project financing.
The project is part of the Government of Canada’s commitment to modernize and standardize federal IT infrastructure. The expansion will increase the government’s storage and bandwidth capacity and will be equipped with modern, energy-efficient power distribution and cooling systems. The project has the goal of qualifying as a silver standard green building with LEED standards; it will also have Uptime Institute Tier III-certification.
Defence Construction Canada was represented by Borden Ladner Gervais LLP with a team that included Richard Shaban, Kasim Salim, Andrew Smith, Shane Pearlman and Arthur Nahas.
UIP was represented by Blake, Cassels & Graydon LLP with a team that included Catherine Doyle, Lisha Li and Leila Yacoubi (financial services), Vivian Kung, Andrew Thompson, David Mender, Jenny Paramonova and Theresa Chan (corporate), Bryan Bailey and Casey Richardson-Scott (tax).
BB UIP Inc., a partner in UIP and wholly owned subsidiary of BB Group Canada Inc., was represented by David Rosenberg.
Brookfield Global Integrated Solutions Canada LP will act as the Service Provider and was represented in house by Andrew McLachlin and Simon Chung, with assistance from Dentons Canada LLP with a team that included Anca Neacsu and Lampros Stougiannos.
The lenders were represented by McCarthy Tétrault LLP with a team that included Linda Brown, Samantha Cunliffe, Liezl Behm and Ailbish Skinner.