The Globe and Mail | Kingston's Student-Housing Boom Smashes Targets - and Draws Critics

KINGSTON - Mayor Bryan Paterson said Kingston’s outperformance is a result of the city’s “concerted effort” to encourage new housing, including by treating builders and non-profit agencies as partners because they control decisions to break ground after securing approvals.

“At the end of the day, we’re only going to succeed or fail together,” he said in a recent interview in his office overlooking the waterfront.

Mr. Paterson calls the high-rise residential developments that now dot the city, including the student properties by Podium Developments, a “breakthrough,” noting they followed intense debates about protecting Kingston’s heritage downtown.