ST. JACOBS – There will be a lot of movement in the village of St. Jacobs as the 90 employees of Waterloo-based Quarry Integrated Communications prepare to move into the Riverworks building, and 11 retailers in the building relocate elsewhere.

The marketing and communications company recently signed an agreement with Mercedes Corp. to rent 24,000 square feet of space in Riverworks.

To make room for Quarry, 11 retailers will be moving out, mostly by the end of January. The company plans to move into the building by May 1.

Ken Whyte, Quarry’s president, said the Riverworks building, located on King Street across from the Mill building, is the perfect location for the company.

Quarry currently is in the Allen Square building on King Street in downtown Waterloo, but the employees are spread over different floors. “We are a little too big for one floor here and we were looking to try to get all of our main teammates together, Whyte said.

The company looked at a number of options, but “at the end of the day, the St. Jacobs building met all of the criteria,” he said.

St. Jacobs has shops, restaurants and other amenities close at hand for the company’s employees and any clients who visit. The building also is in keeping with the company’s brand and image, Whyte added.

“The building itself has a lovely character with the old reclaimed brick and wood beams. For our organization, which is a creative organization, it is an ideal location.”

Having offices overlooking the Conestogo River also “will help spur the creative juices,” he said.

Although some retailers in Riverworks are not happy about having to move, many said that having 90 office workers in the village on a year-round basis will be good for business.

Catherine Hodgkinson, co-owner of the Book Market on the second floor of Riverworks, said it will be hard for her to find a bright and unique space like the one her bookstore has now. But she said she understands why Mercedes decided to do this.

A large part of Riverworks has been empty and even before the recession started the village’s tourism-dependent retail sector was struggling because of the high Canadian dollar and fluctuating gas prices, she said.

She said she and her husband have found a temporary space for their store in St. Jacobs, but they are still looking for a suitable permanent location. She said Mercedes has been trying to accommodate the effected businesses in other places in St. Jacobs as much as possible.

Taste The 4th Sense, a division of The Salivation Company, will be moving into the Mill building across the street. Ellen Roche, the shop’s general manager, said she is pleased Quarry will be renting most of the space in Riverworks.

“There is a lot of empty space in this building and we are excited about the prospects of people actually working in St. Jacobs,” she said. “It will bring some activity into the village. It brings a lot of bodies here.”

Roche added that Quarry’s arrival will helps people realize that St. Jacobs is not a remote community, nor is it exclusively dedicated to tourism. “Change is a good thing, even though the process can be painful,” she said.

Fauke Lipperson, owner of the Grand River Garment Co., is also packing to move in a few weeks. “We are not exactly sure yet where we will be moving because we are still negotiating with a few people, but I don’t think it will be a problem because there are a lot of places available right now,” Lipperson said. “It will be a new beginning for us.”

Jenny Shantz, leasing and development manager for Mercedes, said that with many more retailers in the village now compared to 20 years ago, when Riverworks was developed, it was time for a change.

“We really needed to rebalance the commercial uses in St. Jacobs because we are a little village with almost 100 per cent retail in the core and hardly any services,” she said.

Mercedes is doing its best to try to find spaces for the retailers that will be dislocated, she said. “We have been able to accommodate most of the businesses within the village. In some cases they have chosen to relocate elsewhere.”

Alan Quarry, Quarry’s founder and chief executive officer, said the company’s move into St. Jacobs will be a “win-win,” for the company and the community.

“The spirit of innovation and entrepreneurship that the St Jacob’s community is famous for makes this a perfect move for the Quarry team,” he said in a statement. “We look forward to combining our creative and industrious culture with the existing energy of St Jacobs.”

rsimone@therecord.com