Rockwell Commercial Real Estate, Brokerage
Rockwell Commercial Real Estate, Brokerage
Rockwell Commercial Real Estate, Brokerage
Rockwell Commercial Real Estate, Brokerage
Yet for much of the twentieth century, “North of Princess” was viewed very differently.
Once defined by industry, rail infrastructure, and decades of underinvestment, the neighbourhood has gradually evolved into one of Kingston’s most active development corridors. Its transformation did not happen overnight. It reflects changing economic conditions, public and private investment, and a shift in how residents, developers, and investors view the area.
The story of North of Princess is not simply one of development. It is a story about industry, working-class neighbourhoods, perception, and how steady long-term investment can reshape an entire neighbourhood.
Long before the cranes, construction sites, and development proposals of today, “North of Princess” was more than a directional reference point. It served as a dividing line that carried a label.
For much of Kingston’s history, the area north of Princess Street was shaped by the industrial activities that supported the city’s economy. Rail lines, warehouses, commercial marine activity, coal docks, gas and utility operations, manufacturing, and working-class housing all occupied the landscape. Meanwhile, one block south, Princess Street emerged as Kingston’s main street, serving as the city’s primary destination for shopping, business, entertainment, and civic life.
The neighbourhood’s proximity to the waterfront and transportation infrastructure made it an ideal location for industry. For generations, it played an important role in Kingston’s economic growth, even as its identity became increasingly separated from the commercial and civic life centred along Princess Street.
A 1960 planning study commissioned by the City of Kingston painted a picture of a neighbourhood facing many of the challenges common to older industrial cities across North America. As the city expanded, small settlements north of the original urban boundary were gradually absorbed into the broader community. While many residents built their lives and families there, parts of the area faced substandard housing, overcrowding, poverty, and the lingering effects of industrial activity.
The study found that juvenile court cases were concentrated almost entirely north of Princess Street, while police records showed noticeably more offenders residing in the same area. Relief recipients, overcrowded housing, and residential fire incidents were also disproportionately concentrated throughout the district. To planners, these were not isolated issues but symptoms of a broader pattern of aging housing stock, industrial encroachment, and decades of underinvestment. The report concluded that many of the social challenges facing the area were closely linked to housing conditions and the physical environment itself.
CIRCA 1960: This vertical aerial view of the Central Area shows part of the irrational street pattern which in the beginning was oriented to the waterfront. The lack of contact between the main highway 2 connection over the LaSalle Causeway and other major street lines that are not continuous may easily be seen in the lower right sector. The Central Area for the most part forms a linear strip on each side of Princess Street which throughout history has served as a major thoroughfare through Kingston—No. 2 Highway.
The language used by planners reflected a different era, but the findings help explain how the neighbourhood developed the reputation many longtime residents still remember today.
For decades, “North of Princess” was often spoken of less as a location and more as a caution. While many residents built strong communities and lifelong connections there, the area’s industrial character, aging infrastructure, and long period of underinvestment shaped public perception for generations. That perception would prove remarkably persistent, even as the neighbourhood itself began to change.
By the 1970s, the economic foundations that had shaped North of Princess for generations were beginning to erode. Industrial employers closed their doors, manufacturing jobs disappeared, and rail activity declined. Sites that had once supported Kingston’s industrial economy were left vacant, underutilized, or repurposed for municipal and service uses.
At the same time, new civic and institutional investments began to emerge. Kingston Police relocated its headquarters to Queen Street in 1972, and the provincial government office building, commonly known as the OHIP building, was constructed in 1981. While these projects brought employment and public services to the area, they did little to change its broader reputation.
What remained were aging and abandoned industrial buildings, surface parking lots, brownfield lands, and a neighbourhood struggling to redefine its identity. Although few viewed the area as a development opportunity at the time, the conditions that would eventually support its transformation were beginning to take shape. As industrial uses declined, larger redevelopment sites gradually became available, laying the groundwork for future investment, even if that potential was not yet widely recognized.
CIRCA 1966
By the mid-1980s and into the 1990s, the perception persisted. Princess Street remained a boundary between the Kingston people invested in and the Kingston many chose to overlook.
“People would say, ‘We don’t buy north of Princess,'” recalls Peter Kostogiannis, Broker of Record & President at Rockwell Commercial Real Estate. “It was a very distinct dividing line.”
Properties north of Princess often traded at a discount compared to similar properties elsewhere downtown. Businesses were hesitant to locate there, investors were cautious, and the area was rarely viewed as a place where significant development would take place.
“From a commercial real estate perspective, there wasn’t really opportunity north of Princess Street,” remembers Martin Skolnick, Broker & Vice President at Rockwell Commercial Real Estate. “Queen Street didn’t have any development occurring on it, nor was there enough consumer traffic to support retail.”
For many residents, Queen Street functioned primarily as an alternative route around Princess Street rather than a destination in its own right. Retail activity was limited, pedestrian traffic was modest, and few people imagined the corridor would someday become one of Kingston’s most active areas of redevelopment.
Broker of Record & President at Rockwell Commercial Real Estate
As Kingston’s population grew, residential development accelerated in the west end and commercial activity followed. National retailers increasingly sought larger footprints, surface parking, and automobile-oriented locations that were difficult to replicate within the historic downtown core.
“The majority of trade, commerce, and services migrated west,” says Kostogiannis. “The downtown became more of an entertainment, restaurant, and tourist district.”
While the city’s commercial geography shifted, many sites north of Princess remained underdeveloped. Former industrial properties, aging infrastructure, fragmented land ownership, and environmental concerns made redevelopment difficult.
By the late twentieth century, many of the factors that had once limited redevelopment were beginning to change. Industrial land uses were declining, demand for centrally located housing was increasing, and investors were starting to recognize the long-term potential of underutilized sites close to downtown and major institutions.
The transformation did not happen overnight, nor was it driven by a single project. Instead, confidence returned gradually.
While suburban growth reshaped Kingston’s commercial geography, it also encouraged people to look at the city differently. Investors, developers, and residents began to recognize what had always been there: a centrally located district with waterfront access, proximity to major institutions, and significant redevelopment potential.
The area’s fundamentals were becoming increasingly difficult to ignore. The district sat within walking distance of downtown Kingston, Queen’s University, Kingston General Hospital, Hotel Dieu Hospital, the waterfront, and major employment centres. Residential and commercial land values remained comparatively affordable, while many of the industrial uses that had once defined the area were disappearing. What had once been viewed as a disadvantage was increasingly being recognized as an opportunity.
One project often cited as an early example is the Woolen Mill. Today, it is widely regarded as one of Kingston’s most successful adaptive reuse developments. In the early 1990s, however, the surrounding area looked very different.
“When I first started dealing with the Woolen Mill in 1993, there was a junkyard beside it,” recalls Skolnick.
What is now considered one of Kingston’s most desirable waterfront commercial opportunities was once viewed through a very different lens.
The same pattern repeated itself throughout the district. Individual investments began to change perceptions. Those changing perceptions encouraged additional investment, creating momentum that built steadily over time. Rather than a single catalyst, the neighbourhood’s transformation was driven by a series of incremental decisions that collectively reshaped both the physical landscape and public confidence in North of Princess.
Few projects better illustrate changing attitudes toward downtown than Kingston’s large venue entertainment centre.
Today, Slush Puppie Place is widely viewed as a major civic asset. At the time, however, its downtown location generated significant debate. Many questioned whether such a large facility belonged in the city’s core.
Yet the project moved forward.
Over time, it became another example of how public investment could strengthen confidence in downtown Kingston and support broader revitalization efforts throughout the surrounding area. Beyond the facility itself, the project demonstrated that significant public investment could help reshape perceptions of downtown and encourage additional private investment nearby.
CIRCA 2010
If the revitalization of the Woolen Mill and the approval and construction of a large venue entertainment centre demonstrated that perceptions could change, the North Block would test whether large-scale redevelopment north of Princess Street was truly possible.
In 2014, Homestead Land Holdings Ltd. acquired a substantial portion of the North Block with a vision for transforming underutilized land into a mixed-use urban neighbourhood. The project would require environmental remediation, planning approvals, design revisions, and years of public consultation, highlighting both the complexity and commitment required to transform former industrial lands into a modern urban community.
The project signalled growing confidence in an area that had long been overlooked. It demonstrated that developers were willing to invest not only in the downtown core, but also in lands north of Princess Street that many had previously dismissed.
Projects such as 18 Queen Street, The Madeleine, and 55 Queen Street, The Mackenzie, are the visible result of that long-term commitment. Together with other developments throughout the district, they represent the continued evolution of North of Princess from a working industrial landscape into an increasingly vibrant mixed-use neighbourhood.
2024
Projects completed, approved, under construction, or proposed throughout the Downtown district include:
Together, these developments and proposals represent approximately 1,600 planned residential units, along with new commercial space that continues to expand Kingston’s downtown core northward.
Only a generation ago, this level of residential intensification would have been difficult to imagine.
Beyond adding new housing, these developments are changing how the neighbourhood functions. A growing residential population supports additional retail, increases activity throughout the day, and strengthens connections between downtown, the waterfront, and surrounding employment centres. The area once associated with underutilized land, industrial activity, and redevelopment challenges is increasingly becoming an extension of Kingston’s downtown residential core.
Perhaps the most significant change north of Princess is not physical at all.
It is perceptual.
For generations, “North of Princess” implied a different market, a different neighbourhood, and a different level of confidence.
Today, that distinction is becoming increasingly difficult to draw.
Residents move between the waterfront, downtown, Queen Street, Ontario Street, and the surrounding neighbourhoods without giving much thought to where one area ends and another begins.
The cranes rising above Queen Street today are more than construction projects. They are visible reminders of how dramatically perceptions can change. What was once viewed as the edge of downtown is increasingly becoming one of its most active and closely watched districts.
The neighbourhood north of Princess has always been part of Kingston’s story.
What has changed is the role it plays within it.
The transformation of North of Princess reflects more than new buildings. It demonstrates how long-term investment, changing market conditions, and strategic redevelopment can reshape perceptions of an entire neighbourhood.
As additional residential and mixed-use projects are completed, the district is increasingly functioning as an extension of downtown Kingston while creating new opportunities for businesses, residents, and investors alike. The story of North of Princess is still being written, but its evolution illustrates how cities can adapt former industrial lands into vibrant urban communities without losing sight of the history that shaped them.
Illustrative rendering only. This massing visualization is intended to demonstrate the potential scale and form of proposed and approved developments in the North of Princess area. Building massing, heights, designs, locations and other details are approximate and do not accurately reflect final development. Proposed projects remain subject to applicable planning approvals and may change or may not proceed.
North of Princess refers to the neighbourhood immediately north of Princess Street in downtown Kingston. Historically shaped by industry, rail infrastructure, and working-class housing, the area is now emerging as one of Kingston’s most active mixed-use redevelopment corridors, with significant residential and commercial investment reshaping the district.
Its location near the waterfront, rail infrastructure, and transportation routes made North of Princess an ideal location for manufacturing, warehousing, utilities, and other industrial uses. For much of Kingston’s history, these industries played an important role in the city’s economy while defining the character of the neighbourhood.
The area’s transformation has been driven by several long-term factors, including the decline of industrial land uses, the availability of large redevelopment sites, proximity to downtown and major institutions, and sustained public and private investment. Together, these conditions have created opportunities for new residential and mixed-use development.
Several significant projects are contributing to the area’s transformation, including 18 Queen Street, 55 Queen Street, 223 Princess Street, 283 Queen Street, 90–96 Barrack Street, and 64 Barrack Street. Together, these developments represent approximately 1,600 planned residential units, along with new commercial space that is expanding Kingston’s downtown core northward.
North of Princess offers many of the characteristics that support long-term urban investment, including its central location, proximity to downtown Kingston, Queen’s University, major hospitals, established infrastructure, and the waterfront. As perceptions of the neighbourhood have evolved, these existing advantages have become increasingly attractive for residential and mixed-use redevelopment.
