development. Through his real estate work,
he facilitated the redevelopment of such
landmark historic properties as the British
Whig and the Smith-Robinson buildings.
He now looks forward to the challenges of
redeveloping the Prison for Women
property, which he recently sold to the
Doornekamp family.
A secondary business interest is King’s
Town Development, in partnership with
Gregg Rosen, that focuses on adaptive
reuse of historic properties. Through this
company, Martin and Gregg have won
heritage awards for redeveloping properties
such as Royal Artillery Park, a commercial
space that now occupies superfluous
National Defence property on Bagot Street.
Along with operating partner Sean Billing,
the company is currently renovating The
Frontenac Club Inn to give Kingston a
unique boutique hotel.
Martin’s first encounter with renovating
a heritage property was the couple’s first
home, a narrow townhouse on Colborne
Street, which was a labour of love but
proved to be too small once the children
came along. What they thought would be a
temporary move to another fixer-upper in
the west end turned out to be where they
put down roots, with the children attending
Mother Teresa Catholic School and Holy
Cross Catholic Secondary School. Martin,
who had supervised construction of more
than one home for his mother, started
looking for property to build a new family
home “from scratch.” Friends agreed to
sever a few acres of their farm on Woodbine
Road, and Martin, after getting through an
Ontario Municipal Board hearing, became
the general contractor, working with
architectural technologist Michael Preston
to build their dream home.
“It is a paradise to us!” Martin enthuses.
Spacious, well-planned and very attractive,
the house has hosted numerous functions
— high school graduation class parties for
both children and the Kingston Symphony
House Tour among them. Large windows
overlook provincially protected woods where Martin taps
maple trees and where deer, foxes, wolves, and coyotes are
regularly viewed. Martin was even surprised by a black bear
one spring when he was gardening. An avid gardener who
regularly puts in a few early hours before breakfast, Martin’s
efforts won a Community in Bloom award in 2013 from the
Kingston Horticultural Society.
When Martin can find time for leisure activities, he enjoys
gardening, cooking and making maple syrup at a friend’s
sugar shack, as well as riding his Harley-Davidson
motorcycle, going on ATV trips, skiing, scuba diving, hiking
and everything to do with the outdoors. He follows his
favourite U.S. college football team, Notre Dame, listens to
classic rock music, including Kingston’s The Tragically Hip,
and is trying to make more time for reading. He says his
biggest regret is not finishing his university degree, because
“I don’t like quitting anything.” However, personally, he is
most proud of his two children, and professionally, of both
his service to clients and the ability to give back to the
community in many different ways.
“My mother’s grandfather and my namesake, Martin
Hanson, was a Swedish immigrant who worked hard to
build up a business in Illinois farm country. He became a
philanthropist who helped many families financially to
make it through the depression era. After he died, a shoebox
full of uncollected IOUs was discovered among his effects. I
never met the man, but I have his DNA in me and he has
always served as my role model.”PROFILE KINGSTON 35