Kingston Penitentiary tours expected to continue in 2023

One of Kingston’s top tourist attractions is getting ready for another busy season.

Tuesday, city council is expected to renew a six-month lease of the former Kingston penitentiary for public tours.

City staff say the lease would allow Kingston Penitentiary tours to resume this spring and for film and television crews to rent the notorious prison for production shoots.

Since they started in 2016, public tours of Kingston pen have quickly become one of the most popular attractions in the city.

“In 2017, I think the economic impact was $8 million on tours alone,” said Megan Knott, Tourism Kingston executive director.

The city leases the historic site from Corrections Services Canada and lets the St. Lawrence Parks Commission operate the popular tours through its online booking system.

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Paid visits to the former maximum security prison are expected to return in 2023 but not for the entire year.

City staff recommends council take a more cautious approach in 2023 to lease the prison for six months of tours from April to October at a cost of $200,000.

“Winters are pretty limited in terms of activities, and although we would be limited in our revenues, we would still have to pay the same amount in terms of lease,” said Lanie Hurdle, City of Kingston CAO.

It’s a strategy endorsed by Tourism Kingston, which will handle rentals of the prison for TV and film shoots, charging $5,000 a day for productions.

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“It just makes sense right now, in the environment we’re in, not to take on an entire year lease, but look at the primary ways in which we can get the most people in using the space,” Knott said.

Last season, Kingston tried to branch out beyond tours of the old cell blocks by offering more personalized tours, and even movie nights behind the walls to maximize revenue opportunities.

“Really what we want to get is a sense of what actually works really well on this site, from a tourism perspective, and what we should be continuing in the future and, maybe, where we need to make some changes,” Hurdle said.

If council endorses the six-month lease, the former prison, which closed a decade ago, will once again take on a much different look this spring.