Dare Foods purchases former BlackBerry plant for $27 million

The former BlackBerry manufacturing plant on Cherry Blossom Road in Cambridge, soon to become a Dare Foods facility, is pictured on Thursday, April 2, 2015. (Dan Lauckner / CTV Kitchener)

A Kitchener-based food manufacturer is shelling out $27.25 million to purchase BlackBerry’s former manufacturing plant in Cambridge.

The deal to put 25 Cherry Blossom Road under the control of Dare Foods closed last week.

The building contains 400,000 square feet of warehouse and manufacturing space, as well as 100,000 square feet of office space.

Most recently, it was owned by Spear Street Capital, the U.S.-based company that purchased many of BlackBerry’s Canadian real estate holdings in 2014.

A spokesperson for Dare Foods told CTV News on Thursday that they were unable to provide information on what the new facility would be used for or if the company plans to hire new employees to fill the space.

Dare is headquartered at a facility on Kingsway Drive in Kitchener.

The transaction caught the eye of Benjamin Bach, a sales representative with Cushman & Wakefield Waterloo Region, who says the deal points positively to the region’s economy.

“It means the local company … is doing well enough financially to make the purchase,” he told CTV News.

“It also means they have enough confidence in this area that they know they want to be here for the long term.”

BlackBerry began moving to sell its Canadian real estate in late 2013.

Since then, properties have been purchased by the University of Waterloo, celebrity investor Michael Wekerle and the Mike Lazaridis-founded Quantum Valley Investments.