A new Ga-Ti-Ni compound with the cubic Sc11Ir4-type structure was synthesized by solid state high temperature reaction at 850ºC. The compound was then characterized by using the x-ray powder and single crystal diffraction experiments with a = 11.7075(14) Å. Deviated from the face centered cubic MnCu2Al-type GaTiNi2 compound, the Ga1.2Ti0.852(17)Ni1.948(17) system shows new type of structural distortions. Upon removal of the Ti atom from the structure, the Ni metal site was split into two different sites substituting one site with Ga triggering the cubic distortion of the framework atoms. This distortion mimics two simultaneous sets of tetrahedral distortions by Ni and Ga atoms resulting in the doubling of the unit cell. To examine the nature of this distortion, Density Functional Theory (DFT) calculations were performed using the Tight Binding – Linear Muffin Tin Orbital – Atomic Sphere Approximation (TB-LMTO-ASA) method with Local Spin Density Approximation. The computational study indicated destruction of the degenerate metal d-orbitals by breaking the metal site symmetry upon removal of the Ti atoms from the structure. From this symmetry breaking, more of the Ga states were mixing with the metal states resulting in destabilizing the anti-bonding states; therefore, allowing the Fermi level to be located in the local minimum giving the energetically favorable doubled unit cell structure.