The Kingbridge Centre is a conference venue and communications facility in King City,

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central C ...

, Canada. It was designed by

Arthur Erickson Arthur Charles Erickson (June 14, 1924 – May 20, 2009) was a Canadian architect and urban planner. He studied Engineering at the University of British Columbia and, in 1950, received his B.Arch. (Honours) from McGill University. He is known ...

and built in 1989.

History

Eli Hollinshead purchased a parcel of land on December 18, 1850. On January 6, 1854, it was sold to John Peterman, who later divided it into 4 parcels, the largest being . Peterman sold the largest parcel, on which the Kingbridge Centre now stands, to William McNair for $6,000 on March 6, 1861. In 1929, the farm was sold to the Toronto company of the

Girl Guides of Canada Girl Guides of Canada (GGC; french: Guides du Canada) is the national Guiding association of Canada. Guiding in Canada started on September 7, 1910, and GGC was among the founding members of the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts (W ...

. After a series of repairs to the existing buildings, the camp was relocated to Hawkestone, Ontario. The property's main facilities were originally built in 1989 by

Murray Koffler Murray Bernard Koffler, (January 22, 1924 – November 5, 2017) was a Canadian pharmacist, businessman, and philanthropist. He was best known for founding the Canadian pharmacy chain Shoppers Drug Mart, establishing the Koffler Centre of the Arts ...

, the founder of

Shoppers Drug Mart Shoppers Drug Mart Inc. (named Pharmaprix in Quebec) is a Canadian retail pharmacy chain based in Toronto, Ontario. It has more than 1,300 stores in nine provinces and two territories. The company was founded by pharmacist Murray Koffler in 19 ...

and co-founder of

Four Seasons Hotels Four Seasons Hotels Limited, trading as Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts, is an international luxury hotel and resort company headquartered in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Four Seasons currently operates more than 100 hotels and resorts worldwide.D ...

. The site was first named the King Ranch Health Spa and Fitness Resort, and it was designed as a luxury spa facility. It opened in 1989 and operated until 1992, when it fell into receivership and was repossessed by its financier, The

Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce The Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC; french: Banque canadienne impériale de commerce) is a Canadian multinational banking and financial services corporation headquartered at CIBC Square in the Financial District of Toronto, Ontario. ...

(CIBC). Without viable economic prospects, CIBC adapted the facility to become its "Leadership Centre". In 1996, the secretive

Bilderberg Group The Bilderberg meeting (also known as the Bilderberg Group) is an annual off-the-record conference established in 1954 to foster dialogue between Europe and North America. The group's agenda, originally to prevent another world war, is now defi ...

held its annual meeting here. In 2001, the site was sold to

John Abele John E. Abele (born 1937) is an American businessman, and the co-founder and a director of Boston Scientific, a medical device company. He was awarded the ASME Medal in 2010. As of May 2022, his net worth was estimated at US$640 million. He was f ...

, co-founder of

Boston Scientific Boston Scientific Corporation ("BSC"), incorporated in Delaware, is a biomedical/biotechnology engineering firm and multinational manufacturer of medical devices used in interventional medical specialties, including interventional radiology, i ...

, who transformed it into its current use as a conference centre. Upon Abele's retirement in 2021, the facility was entrusted to the Pathak Family Trust and Ekagrata Inc., with

Prashant Pathak Prashant Shanker Pathak (born 1972) is a Canadian investor and businessman who lives in Toronto. He is the founding Chairman of PARTS iD Inc. () and the CEO of Ekagrata Inc., a private investment and diversified holding company with assets in fo ...

becoming its chairman. During the

COVID-19 pandemic in Ontario The COVID-19 pandemic in Ontario is an ongoing viral pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), a novel infectious disease caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first confirmed case of COVID-19 in ...

, the facility was used for temporary transitional shelter for individuals to

self-isolate In health care facilities, isolation represents one of several measures that can be taken to implement in infection control: the prevention of communicable diseases from being transmitted from a patient to other patients, health care workers, ...

, in a partnership with the regional government of York and the Salvation Army.

References

External links

The Kingbridge Centre website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kingbridge Centre Arthur Erickson buildings Buildings and structures in King, Ontario Convention centres in Canada 1989 establishments in Ontario