Thursday evening, the planning committee will be asked by city staff to make changes to Kingston, Ont.’s Official Plan and the zoning bylaw to allow the Frontenac Mall redevelopment to go ahead.
Jeff McLaren, who is both the councillor for the district where the redevelopment will take place and head of the planning committee, says he’s most excited about the changes proposed to the Official Plan, which would allow “mixed development” in the area.
“We’re setting up a new way of looking at this,” he said.
“It’s going to be commercial right alongside residential, and this is kind of the infill that we’ve wanted for a very long time.”
The property owners, Bayfield Realty Advisors and Patry Inc. Developments, plan to demolish sections of the single-storey mall in three phases over the next 25 years to make room for six apartment towers, ranging from six-to 20-storeys tall.
McLaren noted that although the developers will be tearing parts of the mall down, the FoodBasics and Service Canada will remain. Other businesses within the enclosed mall were ordered to vacate their spaces in late 2021.
In a city that regularly sees developments challenged, McLaren says he’s optimistic that this project will move ahead without any major hurdles.
“The complaints that I’ve heard have been basically, ‘Can you put solar panels on the roof? Can you make sure that it’s directed to as many people, a broad range of people, as possible?’ that kind of stuff,” he said.
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In the end, the project will create a total of nearly 1,700 residential units, according to the report submitted to the committee.
The first phase of the redevelopment will include a six-storey, 388-unit building to be constructed on the northeastern portion of the old Frontenac Mall footprint.
McLaren said that if the amendments get committee approval Thursday, and again at council, he expects the build will begin before the end of 2023.
Considering Kingston’s housing crunch, he said the quick addition of nearly 350 units called for in the project’s first phase will be “a very welcomed benefit to the city.”
Kingston’s vacancy rate, as of October 2022, stands at 1.2 per cent, according to the CMHC.
The second and third phases involve constructing five residential towers on the western side of the mall lands.
– with files from Global News’ Bill Hutchins and John Lawless
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