To strengthen Toronto’s urban manufacturing ecosystem and support the next generation of product-based entrepreneurs, Chris spearheaded the creation of a light manufacturing incubator designed to accelerate commercialization and growth for early-stage makers and producers.
Planned to open in 2020, the incubator was envisioned as the anchor tenant in a groundbreaking development—the first mixed-use building in North America to integrate residential rental housing above dedicated manufacturing space. The lower five floors were reserved for production uses, with the incubator occupying the first two floors and the remaining three dedicated to manufacturers scaling out of the program or seeking access to shared resources.
The project represented a novel approach to preserving and evolving industrial space in dense urban environments, offering a scalable, sustainable model for embedding manufacturing within the fabric of the modern city.