Kingston&Co Condominiums is set to launch this weekend, giving locals and registrants first dibs at being homeowners in Kingston Road newest condo building where the Upper Beach meets the Fallingbrook neighbourhood in Scarborough. TAS, Main and Main Developments and First Capital Realty have teamed up to redevelop the site at 1092-1118 Kingston Rd, once home to the Alpine Hotel, a local watering hole for nearly 75 years that closed in June 2011.

Rendering of Kingston&Co Condominiums, image courtesy of TAS

Teeple Architects was engaged to design the mid-rise building, which adds density and mixed-use occupancy to one of Toronto's most historic main roads. While also acting as a major vehicular artery, Kingston Road serves as a retail, cultural and pedestrian strip here, with merchants recently banding together to create the Kingston Road Village business community. It will be interesting to see what further area revitalization this will spur on this main drag, just east of Victoria Park Avenue, and north of The Beaches, over the next few years.

The Kingston &Co sales centre, located directly across from the project site, opens this weekend for private appointments, followed by a public opening in June. It was designed by Toronto firm Mason Studio, who also designed the building’s interior: suites, lobby, and amenity spaces. Potential buyers can review unit floor plans, a detailed architectural model, and then walk through a fully furnished one-bedroom model suite, featuring custom casework options by Mason Studio, such as a den with a built-in bookcase and desk as well as shelving and storage cubbies framing an upholstered bed.

Model of Kingston&Co. Condominiums. Photo by Craig White.

As demonstrated in the model, the building will rise eight storeys before stepping up to ten on the west side nearest to Victoria Park. The building presents a strong front on Kingston Rd, while its north face is tiered, in order to reduce the impact of shadows from the building on houses in the Blantyre neighbourhood to the north. Kingston & Co features private terraces outfitted with planters and offers panoramic views of the city. The solid mass of the building was carved into to create openings and balconies/terraces at various levels, and presenting the opportunity to incorporate coloured accent panels with red, orange, and yellow tones. Uppermost south-facing units have views of Lake Ontario.

Kingston&Co will house 141 residential suites ranging from 423 to 1,428 square feet, half of which have their own unique floor plans. Over 50% of units have 2 bedrooms. Underground parking is also included, with 193 residential parking spaces and one level for commercial.

Creating access to the outside was a priority in this development. Each unit has outdoor space, either in the form of a balcony or a terrace, with harvest planters provided in the deeper instances. And for residents who seek greater opportunity to grow their greens, there is a landscaped rooftop with a series of private raised bed gardens and communal growing space for veggies and herbs. Completing the design is lounge area and dining spaces with BBQ.

Architectural model shows Kingston&Co Condos' landscaped rooftop. Photo by Craig White.

TAS provides the building with not only the more typical amenities, such as gym, yoga room, as well as indoor and outdoor entertaining spaces, but has also newly introduced some atypical features, such as a car wash, a workshop and a tool room. The latter two are intended to appeal particularly to those residents who don't want to give up on a cherished DIY lifestyle when downsizing from a home to a condo. Not only increasing the sense of community and engagement, the garden plots offer homeowners, for example, the opportunity to grow produce without the added costs associated with owning a yard.

If this sounds good to you, you can still get in on the opening weekend by clicking on the register link in our dataBase file, linked below, where you will also find additional information and renderings. Want to get involved in the discussion on Kingston &Co? Check out the associated Forum threads, or speak up using the comments section provided at the bottom of this page.