BIA believes downtown Kingston will be fine after hospital moves

Executive director says the move is a long-term process, would like to see the buildings converted to housing.

Now that there are plans to move hospital services to a new location, how will that affect the future of downtown Kingston?

The City of Kingston and Kingston Health Sciences Centre announced in early July that a new hospital will be built on the Clogg's Road Business Park lands.

The new hospital will replace the two existing ones that are located in or near the downtown: Hotel Dieu and Kingston General Hospital.

Executive Director of the Downtown Kingston Business Improvement Area (BIA) Marijo Cuerrier says there are so many people who work at or are visitors to the two hospitals who often shop or dine in the downtown.

She says it will be tough to see the businesses lose a valuable customer base but believes there are brighter days ahead.

Cuerrier says they have been in constant communication with KHSC about the hospital's plans to move.

She says it is a long-term process so it shouldn't have a huge impact on downtown merchants.

There is also the question of what to do with the two hospital sites once all services and staff move out.

Cuerrier's idea is to convert the land into residential units.

KHSC CEO Dr. David Pichora had said they did consider redeveloping and expanding the two existing hospitals.

But he said in the end, none of the options available were feasible due to the growing need for increasingly complex acute care services, and the structural obstacles on the existing sites.

Story by Ken Hashizume