Five Nine on Richmond, 533 Richmond St W: 51 Soft Lofts, Stacked Parking

Five Nine on Richmond is for the buyer who wants a real loft feel downtown and does not care about a gym. It is a nine-storey, 51-suite soft loft from 2007, with exposed concrete ceilings and walls of glass, sitting on Richmond Street West between the Fashion District and Queen West. Before you fall for the ceilings, understand the parking: the garage uses stacked parking lifts. I’m Jatin Dua, RE/MAX Quantum Realty.

A small loft building that skipped the amenities

Five Nine on Richmond takes its name from its developer, 59 Developments, and it is the kind of building that only made sense in the mid-2000s: a narrow, mid-rise infill with 51 suites and almost no shared facilities. Toronto Life, reviewing a suite here, noted there is no gym, no pool and no party room.

I don’t treat that as a flaw. Fewer amenities means fewer things for 51 owners to maintain, heat, insure and eventually replace. The building’s bike storage and BBQ permission are about it, and the lack of amenity space is part of why buyers who want a loft but not a resort tend to land here.

I could not find a reliable public credit for the architect, so I am leaving that out rather than guessing. If design history matters to your purchase, ask the listing agent or check the condominium’s registered declaration.

Concrete ceilings and floor-to-ceiling glass

This is a soft loft: a new building designed to feel like a converted warehouse. Listings and press describe exposed concrete ceilings, floor-to-ceiling windows and concrete accents, and the suite Toronto Life featured had ceilings of about nine feet. Treat that as a guide, not a building-wide figure, and confirm the height in the suite you are viewing.

Sizes run from roughly 476 to 1,983 square feet. At the top of the building, blogTO featured a two-level penthouse with windows spanning both floors and a rooftop patio with views in every direction. The same piece pointed out the trade-off of a dense block: an office building sits directly across the street, so some suites look straight into it.

Exposed concrete looks great and transmits sound and temperature in its own way. Spend time in a suite at the hour you would actually be home, and check which direction it faces.

In a building this small, the floor plans vary more than the bedroom count suggests. A two-bedroom here can be a compact split plan or a long, narrow loft with barn-door bedrooms, as in the suite Toronto Life featured. I compare actual measured square footage and how much of it is usable, because narrow plans with tall glass can feel larger than they measure, and occasionally smaller.

The stacked parking question

According to Toronto Life, the underground garage uses stacked parking, where cars are lifted and stored vertically to save space. Parking is included in the maintenance fee, which is a real plus, but stacked systems change daily life.

Before you buy a suite with parking, find out how the system works for that specific spot: whether you need to wait for another car to be moved, what vehicle height and weight it allows, and how often the lifts have been out of service. Then look at the reserve fund study for the lift equipment, because it is mechanical and it will need maintenance and eventually replacement. Bike storage in the building is the backup plan many owners here use.

Richmond Street West, between Queen and King

The address puts you in the old Fashion District, a short walk north to Queen West and south to King West. Richmond is a one-way arterial, so expect traffic noise on the street-facing side and a quieter experience at the back.

The block is still evolving. UrbanToronto reported in 2017 that the neighbouring 543 to 553 Richmond Street West site was seeking site plan approval for redevelopment, so check what has been built or is under construction next door before choosing a suite by its view. The data panel on this page covers transit, parks and food nearby.

What Five Nine on Richmond costs per square foot

The condos.ca record puts the building average at about $951 per square foot, roughly in line with other boutique King West and Queen West lofts of the same era. Buyers here are paying for the ceilings, the glass and the small-building feel, not for amenities.

Only one suite was listed when I checked, so I can’t publish a fair range, and I won’t quote a single listing’s price or fee. What I can tell you is that the fee covers heat, air conditioning, water and parking, so compare it with a newer building’s fee plus your own heating, cooling and parking costs before calling it high. Building insurance is not shown among the inclusions on the record I used, so ask how it is handled.

In a 51-suite building, a handful of sales a year sets the market. The sold data panel above is the best guide, and my building sold report breaks it down further.

One more pricing point: suites with a parking spot and suites without one are different products here. Because parking sits inside the fee and the system is stacked, I price them separately and I make sure the buyer knows exactly which spot, and which type of spot, transfers with the suite.

Building specifications

Amenities at Five Nine on Richmond

The amenity list is short: bike storage, BBQs and a secured garage, with no gym, pool or party room. That keeps the building simple to run, but you will be paying for a gym membership elsewhere.

Jatin’s honest take on Five Nine on Richmond

Five Nine on Richmond — frequently asked questions

Looking at King West, Liberty Village and CityPlace more broadly? Start with my Toronto community guide — the neighbourhoods, what each pocket is like, and how they compare.