Cityflats - 10 Cataraqui Street

As one walks north from Doug Fluhrer Park, at the foot of the former North Street and the site of the former K&P/CP roundhouse (top photo - bottom right), and along the Urban K&P Trail at waterside, you'll pass a triangular patch of land on your left. Labelled Molly Brant Point in the Googlemaps image (top photo) and nominally designated 10 Cataraqui Street, it's rather nondescript and now chain-link fenced. It's going to be a development known as Cityflats. Boilerplate text from the firm's website says, "Cityflats specializes in delivering successful investment outcomes and strong risk-adjusted returns on multi-residential real estate investments. Our strategy is to target opportunities in secondary markets across southeastern Ontario and generate strong returns by acquiring, developing, constructing and managing high-quality real estate. We are led by an experienced management team and supported by a valued network of capital partners."

January 14, 2025 UPDATE: Kingston city council is set to review a proposal to provide up to $4.1 million in brownfield tax rebates for the redevelopment of a long-vacant industrial site at 0 Cataraqui St. The property, owned by Inner Harbour Development LP, was historically used for industrial and transportation purposes, leaving a legacy of soil and groundwater contamination. Plans for the site include a six-storey residential building with 75 apartment units. To move forward, the project requires environmental remediation and the registration of a record of site condition. Currently contributing approximately $27,400 in annual municipal and education taxes, the site is projected to generate no less than $182,600 annually after redevelopment. Under the proposed plan, 80 per cent of this tax uplift will be rebated to the developers over a 10-year period, capped at $4.1 million. “The project aligns with the City’s goals of promoting housing affordability and addressing underutilized lands,” city staff noted in their report. 

Council will voted on the motion, associated bylaws and a brownfield site agreement with the developer at their January 14 meeting, moved, not discussed, and approved in less than 30 seconds!

From the City report: The 0 Cataraqui Street property is contaminated with petroleum hydrocarbons, heavy metals, and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) within the soil at concentrations that exceed the applicable Ontario Site Condition Standards for residential or parkland use. These contaminants are present due to unregulated landfilling within the industrial inner harbour area in the 19’th and 20’th centuries and the legacy of commercial, industrial and transportation uses on and adjacent to the property prior to the emergence of regulations and best practices designed to reduce pollution.

The test of this development will be community engagement and environmental remediation. Sitting on the site of former coal and oil dealerships, and the former CP spur to the Woolen Mill, site cleanup will likely be required. As a green space prized by an originally working-class Swamp Ward neighbourhood, now steadily gentrifying, this will be a challenge.

Red is landside, white is waterside.

Housing crisis? What housing crisis? The people who can afford these Inner Harbour views know no such words and can pay to play.