City of Kingston redeveloping Frontenac Mall into housing

Kingston, Ont.’s, Frontenac Mall is getting ready for a major transformation over the next few years.

The sprawling commercial mall at Bath and Centennial roads is the focus of a new housing development which went before the city’s planning committee this week, along with new designs to build 2,000 housing units.

Phase one, which was approved by city council in August, was for a six-storey residential building with 338 units.

The next two phases received approval from the city’s planning committee on Wednesday.

“Phases two and three, which were the subject of the report at planning committee this week, are for the remaining 1,670 plus units on the site,” said the city’s director of planning services, Tim Park.

The development is expected to take more than two decades to complete.

“Part of the reason for the build out over the 25-year period (is) because of the existing leases that are in place, for them to run out and for the tenants to find new places to relocate,” said Park.

According to Coun. Jeff McLaren. this location was chosen due to the amount of unused space on the Frontenac Mall property.

“There’s a lot of empty space in that gigantic parking lot, so if we can fill that up with housing for people, beautiful housing with clear views of the water, I think this would be great,” he said.

McLaren adds this won’t solve the affordability crisis on its own, but it’s a step in the right direction

“This won’t solve the affordability housing problem on its own, but it will add supply, and in the sense of adding supply, hopefully prices will go down,” he added.

It won’t take long to start seeing the effects of the development.

“That should start proceeding sometime next year or within certainly 2025. So the first phase will happen within the next one to two years,” said Park.

With the City of Kingston having one of the lowest vacancy rates in all of Ontario, these are apartments that can’t come soon enough.

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