Image: Block 4 of the North Block District. This City-owned property is bounded by Ontario Street, The Tragically Hip Way, King Street and Queen Street.

Next on the North Block

The North Block District consists of five blocks located in the core of downtown Kingston, just above Ontario Street, which runs along the lake and just north of Princess Street, the city's main street. See the document library (link at right) for documents, presentations and reports related to this key Kingston district.

Privately owned lands in Block 3 (north side of Queen Street between King and Wellington streets) and Block 5 (south side of Queen Street between King and Ontario streets) were purchased by Homestead Landholdings in 2014.

Design guidelines for new development on City-owned Block 4 (north of Queen Street between King and Ontario) have been approved by City Council. 

Background

Much of the North Block District's land in this key core district is considered a brownfield site, as a result of previous industrial activities – and many of the buildings and sites it contains are also of heritage interest.  Currently, a significant portion of the district is used for surface parking. Zoning allows for a broad range of uses, from residential and limited commercial to a hotel/convention centre.

Timeline

February 2024 – The Request for Expression of Interest (RFEOI) for the development opportunity on Block 4 of the City-owned North Block District, received responses from six qualified developer proponents (Report 24-089 - Conference Centre Update and Next Steps). Based on the quality of all submissions, the City is inviting all six of the proponents to submit a Request for Proposal.

October 2023 – A Request for Expression of Interest (RFEOI) is issued by the City to solicit a private sector partner to develop a mixed-use, hospitality-oriented project on the City-owned “Block 4” within the North Block District. 

May 2023 – Council directed staff to prepare and release a Request for Information for the redevelopment of Block 4 based on the 2014 Block 4 design guidelines for a multi-use redevelopment and any other applicable land use policies and retention, restoration and/or adaptive re-use of the heritage buildings on-site (Report Number 23-130 – Conference Centre Update and Next Steps).

February 2022 – Council received “A Business Case For a Conference Centre in Kingston” as well as “Kingston Conference Centre Hotel Capacity Research Paper” (Report 22-024 - Conference Centre – Feasibility Study Outcomes and Next Steps) and directed staff to consider the conference centre use in any future development of Block 4 of the North Block.

April 2019 – Through the Integrated Destination Strategy, led by Tourism Kingston in partnership with the City of Kingston and Kingston Accommodation Partnership, Council endorsed the recommendation that a feasibility study be conduction for a conference centre in the city, including a potential venue.

August 2014 – Design guidelines for new development on Block 4 were approved by Council and can be found in the document library.

December 2013 – Convention Centre Feasibility Study report goes to Council. The study can be found in the document library. For more detailed background data email contactus@cityofkingston.ca.

October 2013 – A detailed inventory of the heritage buildings at 19-23 Queen Street along with recommendations for preservation and conservation and guidelines for how new buildings on Block 4 should integrate with the heritage buildings is presented to the municipal heritage committee.

October 2013 – Council approves that Block 4, including the 19-23 Queen Street buildings, be declared surplus to City needs.

April 2013 – report to council results in direction on several aspects of the development of Block 4 including:

• building uses,
• building height,
• parking ratios,
• public parking requirements,
• heritage building preservation,
• value proposition for public benefits and financial benefits,
• conference centre uses on site, and
• obtaining the necessary statutory approvals.

March, 2013 – City hosts a public open house, where several potential development scenarios are presented. The public provides comments on the information presented

November 2012 – Update provided to Council on a proposed action plan and timeline for the eventual sale of Block 4 to a private developer, through a two-stage Request for Proposal process.

2009 – Council approved the recommendations in the North Block Community and Business Enhancement Opportunities (2009).