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Originally Posted by Davis137
The parking in Downtown Kingston is CHEAP!!! My wife and I moved our family here from Ottawa last summer, and I am always pleasantly surprised how cheap the parking is (this includes the garages near the Hotel Dieu and the one closer to the market).
Also, there has been a LOT of development happening here in the last 10 years (I have been coming here off and on for courses for work). There are lots of new subdivisions, commercial and retail buildings along Gardiners north of Princess, and along Midland, the downtown has gotten a lot of new sidewalks, gardens and some of the arterial roads have been repaved in the last 2 years that were badly needed. New highrises now exsist north of the base, as well as more going up near the west end of concession. The downtown has also seen a slew of new businesses and restaurants and cafe's open in the last couple of years that are similar to the Glebe and Old Ottawa South districts of Ottawa. The bus service here, while not stellar, has become a lot more relevant, and I couldn't believe when I saw the Kingston Center had been torn down and replaced by box-type stores (and I'm sure the last corner of that property at Sir John A and Bath will get filled in soon enough.
Kingston has a lot more going for it these days, and the development taking place doesn't seem to be slowing down much either.
Isn't there a proposal somewhere to build a 19-storey condo across the street from the K-Rock center, where the Police HQ building used to be? If it gets built by the right firm, it will likely extend the downtown skyline north some more, and add some serious density to that part of downtown.
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Yep, its incredible how much energy and change there is Kingston considering how low-growth it is (both economically & population-wise). I mean, in the past five years Kingston's population has probably grown by only about 4% or so, yet we've gotten so many new things.
The lot across from K-Rock, known as Block 4 in city plans, doesn't have any formal developer proposals I believe. I think the city's still going through the rezoning process. I did hear that they proposed to zone for 19 stories, although I don't know what become of that (waterloowarrior! You're knowledge is needed!). I think the city has gotten a few informal proposals from the private sector for things like office & hotel, but I don't think there's been any residential (although that's quite possibly a desirable use). KEDCO wanted a new convention centre there, though I believe they were shot down.
The entire North Block is going to be a big intensification zone. Sooner or later we're going to see every single parking in the area sold off. One of the big reasons why the City is aggressively expanding transit so much is to reduce parking demand to enable that sell off. On the topic of transit, next year we're getting TWO new express routes!!! One roughly following the #2 and the #12, another following the #9.
Another area of big change will be midtown Princess, between Division & Sir John A. Utility upgrades are underway to enable growth, and already intensification is being pushed there. There's those new townhouse developments by Varsity around the intersections with Albert & Frontenac, the giant new 663 Princess apartment complex, not to mention those 10 story towers mentioned above.