John Armitage is Kingston’s most experienced and reputable homebuilder, legendary for his commitment to quality and to community.

John’s career in the construction industry started with a series of summer jobs for his hometown City of Brockville in their public works department. He later enrolled at Queen’s University, completing a degree in Civil Engineering. His combination of experience and education landed him a job with the City of Brockville in a unique position where John was responsible for designing a subdivision and services for a development being completed by Kingston builder, Dacon.

That connection would prove useful, as he was later employed by Dacon as a land development engineer. After a couple of years, in order to build his experience, John shifted to a site supervisor position with Dacon, leading to his promotion to manager and eventually VP of Construction.

A series of unfortunate events rocked Dacon in the late 70s and early 80s, including the simultaneous death of its founder and its chief land engineer. These events gradually increased John’s responsibilities, eventually leading to John being named CEO of the company. At that time, Dacon was a $50-million company selling roughly 300 homes per year.

At Dacon, one of John’s passions – supporting youth – would be first realized. Two local teachers approached him to ask about piloting an alternative education program where a home-building site would serve as the classroom for a few of their learners. That conversation would lead to the launch of the Building Construction Internship Program (BCIP) with the Limestone District School Board, which continues to see 15 to 20 student participants each year and has helped to offset the industry-wide decline in skilled trades workers.

John left Dacon in 1996 to become a consultant until a fortuitous connection with Michael Davies, then-publisher of The Whig Standard, took him down another road.

John had been a competitive rower, even representing Canada internationally in 1975 – and it’s a sport he continues to coach to this day. Both Michael and John had been involved in launching the Kingston Rowing Club in 1977, and they had developed a strong friendship. In 2000, Michael approached John about developing a parcel of land off King St. West near Cataraqui Bay. We know that development today as Trailhead Place, the first in a series of developments by their new partnership (with Eric Davies later taking over for Michael), called Llynlea Homes. This was followed by the Westgate development near Collins Bay Road and Princess Street, and led to more opportunities, including the development of additional lands in Amherstview where the Brookland Homes brand first launched.

John’s mentors along the way, which included Michael Davies as well as people like Brit Smith and Judge William Henderson, the founder of Amherstview, instilled in him the values of community service and giving back. That’s why you’ll find the Brookland name on minor hockey jerseys in Loyalist Township, on the Building Bright Futures segment on Global News Kingston’s evening broadcast, and on Brookland Homes arena in Loyalist Township.

John has previously served as President of the Kingston Home Builders Association and the Greater Kingston Chamber of Commerce, and served on the advisory committee for the Province of Ontario’s Tarion home warranty program. In addition to serving as a rowing coach at Queen’s and the Kingston Rowing Club, John is a minor hockey coach in Loyalist Township and was one of the first level three hockey coaches in Canada.

John and his wife Jan, live today in a home his company built in Amherstview, and are proud grandparents of their 3 grandchildren. John has been significantly growing Brookland’s scale and continuing in the coming years with developments in Kingston, Amherstview, Odessa, and in his old stomping grounds of Brockville.

John continues to operate his business guided by two key principles: that his crews will build houses they would be proud to live in themselves, and that if there’s a defect, they fix it.