Thursday November 14, 2019 ~ LANGFORD
by Mary P Brooke ~ West Shore Voice News
A local business with national and global reach in the telecommunications industry, Charter Telecom Inc officially opened their new headquarters in Langford today Thursday November 14.
Construction of the 16,500-sq ft four-storey building at 2614 Sooke Road (near Jacklin Road) took a few years from start to finish. Built to ‘passive house’ standards that are environmentally-friendly and energy-efficient, the bright open-space building easily accommodated about 200 people for the opening.
Attending and giving speeches were Langford Mayor Stew Young and the BC Government’s acting executive director of the Built Environment Unit of BC Energy, Mines & Petroleum Resources, Nathaniel Gosman. Both spoke to the amazing feat of bringing the passive house building model to realization.
Charter Telecom Inc serves clients locally, in BC and across Canada with back-end connectivity and networking infrastructure that makes possible a lot of what people rely on for everyday good cyber-service in business, government, health care and education.
Charter says its solutions architects work with the industry’s best products to simplify complex networks and build high-performance information technology (IT) infrastructure.
The ‘passive house’ standards of the building exceed the more commonly known LEEDS standard, says Charter President Kelly Michell. Efficiencies include 90% less energy consumption than a traditional building. Cool air is brought in and stale air exits; low levels of airborne particles. Body heat is calculated into the mix. Even the amount of window light (and its contribution to heat) is part of the enviro-management. The working interior space is quiet due to superior sound insulation and features a lot of greenery with tropical plants placed around the various working and social spaces.
The event began after 11 am with an official ribbon cutting outdoors in cool weather in the parking lot outside the main entry. The red ribbon was cut by Charter CEO & founder Paul Chandler, Charter President Kelly Michell, Paul’s wife Laurie Chandler, and Langford Mayor Stew Young.
That was followed by speeches delivered to people filling the group-meeting staircase and the balconies on two levels, and then tours of the building interior were given in small groupings for all the guests. A small reception with champagne was held on the top floor toward the end of the two-hour event.
Stew Young called it “an exciting day for Langford, which shows what can be done “when you put your mind to it and have a team behind you”.
“Not many businesses will build a building to this level, because it is expensive,” said Mayor Young. “Thank you for showcasing how to do this to improve the environment and climate. It’s a big step for you. We were pretty excited to watch this building take shape over the last two or three years. Council and residents of Langford can be proud of this building here,” said Young. He hopes the building can be showcased to others in the business and construction communities in the months and years ahead.
Most of the guests today were of the telcom, technology and construction industries. Other senior officials attending from the City of Langford were Langford Councillors Lanny Seaton, Norma Stewart, and Lillian Szpak as well as CAO Darren Kiedyk.
Charter choosing Langford for their headquarters speaks volumes about the growth of the city and its regional economic impact. The municipality’s consistent and persistent approach to welcoming the arrival of businesses as well as fostering their growth produces notable results with a range of positive spin-offs.
=========== THIS ARTICLE: was published in a shorter form in the November 15, 2019 print/PDF edition of West Shore Voice News.
=========== PREVIOUS ARTICLE (about the building construction and some of what Charter Telecom does): on page 1 of the November 8, 2019 print/PDF edition of West Shore Voice News.