Actually, I was wrong, please ignore my previous post. I was lead to believe that Stages was the old Odeon by others in the past, but hopping onto the Queens archives and having a rake around at photos of Princess street clearly shows that Stages was the Biltmore and the Odeon was where the Grizz/AJ's are located.

Peggy and memememe are 100% correct.

So much for "without any shred of a doubt"... Oh well!

Without any shred of a doubt, Stages.

No harm in starting a petition for Empire to maintain operations at the downtown location. If enough people show they care, then who knows? They do OWN the building, so it's not like overheads are very high in keeping the place running. I am not sure how many students will be willing to cab it out to Kings Crossing on a regular basis to catch a movie, and they will also lose all the walk by traffic generated from being in a downtown location. Worth a shot I say.

A St. Hubert sounds nice. I lived up in Cornwall for a year, oh what a fun year that was (sarcasm), and St. Hubert was one of the few good memories to come from that place. Much preferable to Swiss Chalet - although it looks like work is still going forward with "Moms" downtown, as they have recently changed the front windows to the opening garage style. Could 2012 be the year of the rotisserie chicken?

The last thing any city needs is another Wal-mart, but I fear it will probably happen. Wasn't Wal-mart trying to build a store across from the Kingston Center a few years back? Pretty sure the city blocked it or something at the time.

Don't blame the retailers. Blame the suppliers who charge more to get the product to our stores, or the manufacturers who insist on a higher MSRP for Canada, or even the government for the additional taxes charged on products coming into our country for resale. Blame it on the great distances between our major cities, which force freight costs to be much higher just getting the products to the stores - sure Ontario is pretty densely populated in the southern areas, but should people pay less for the same product there compared with say... Regina?

Anyway, I don't think it's so much that prices are higher in Canada as that prices are LOWER in the states. What I mean by this is that if you compare like for like in terms of pricing with the states and any country in Europe, or Canada, or Australia, or most other developed countries, you will find the US is cheaper. I grew up over in the UK and trust me, Canadians can't complain about high prices compared with what they suffer over there. The US is the main market for most product manufacturers, it's the biggest slice of the pie and I imagine they are all focused on competing in that market. Sadly that leaves the rest of us as an afterthought and the same level of pricepoint competition doesn't exist outside the states.

Sorry, but as someone who managed a store in downtown Kingston and had to suffer the headaches firsthand when our dollar hit par a few years back, I feel the need to defend our stores. To shift all the blame on the retailer isn't fair, especially when it comes to stores that aren't part of a specifically branded chain and have little control over what they pay for their product.

A nightclub? Have you been in the Capitol? The building is far too large to possibly be a nightclub in this city. The location fills up almost half of that city block - it's quite large. I can't begin to imagine what they are asking for the place.

I could see someone buying the location, keeping the smaller part of the front portion and developing it for retail and then demolishing and redeveloping the back portion into an apartment complex perhaps. The way the building is set up, there is really no use for it outside of being a cinema. The projection booth/cinema layout simply isn't flexible enough. It may be possible to keep the 2 front screens in operation and demolish the rest of the building, which would allow for a small downtown cinema to still exist there.

It would be sad to see the Capitol end up being something other than a cinema if Empire does choose to go with just the one location out at King's Crossing. The Capitol is the only surviving downtown cinema from the golden age, with almost 90 years of history. Sure it might have had a refit back in the 90's that stole a little of the old magic, but it's still relevant and I find it a hugely enjoyable place to catch a movie - the lack of stadium seating adds to the charm and old time cinema charm, yet the picture is always as clear as newer theaters (if not clearer due to the lack of excessively large screens) and the sound is certainly good enough to get a pass mark.

Pity so many people can't see beyond the "wow factor" of the cookie cutter big box cinemas, one day none of these old places will be left.

The place started well enough when it was sandwiches they were doing. I actually ate there a couple times a week for a few months after it first opened. Eventually I had to stop though, the quality had slipped too much and some of the sandwiches I got bordered on inedible... The place got progressively worse and worse as the owner decided to start spending more and more of his time there, pity. I still kind of crave their veal sandwich in its original form sometimes - thankfully it's pretty easy to make it myself at home.

Never ate at Jreck myself, but I know at least a dozen people that did and said awful things of the place. It was always going to be an uphill battle in a location that Quiznos couldn't manage to remain profitable in; it would have taken something special to make it work. Pity, that location sat vacant for so long, it was nice to see something operating there again. With what Keystone is charging to lease that location, I don't expect to see anything new there for quite some time.

I heard from someone that Mom's is essentially completely ready to open on the inside, but the work done when constructing the place failed to meet code, so they couldn't open. Which would explain the delay I suppose, although it's just something I heard and can't be sure of any accuracy.

I'm a big fan of The Alibi, it's nice to have a quiet place to drink and enjoy conversation - no TV's, no loud music, but they do have boardgames which is a nice change of pace. They also stock all sorts of craft beers, and John behind the bar really seems into creating drinks and getting people to try new cocktails, which is fun. A nice addition to downtown.

While it is sad that S&R, Modern, and Source for Sports have all disappeared from the downtown, I couldn't be happier to see what has happened to the vacated buildings they once inhabited. It's been a huge facelift for downtown, and buildings that were once run down now look better than ever. The renovations on the old location of the Running Room and even the H&R Block building are great as well. Downtown Kingston is looking good, but there are still some empty storefronts that have been vacant for far too long; can't have it all I guess...

Great article!