Battery Park, 50 Lynn Williams St: Liberty Village’s Pool Building

Battery Park was the first of Monarch’s three Liberty Village towers, and it got the pool. Zip next door was built with a two-storey bridge so its residents could use it too. The suites are on the small side and the fee rate looks high, but parking and heat are in it, and the location across from Liberty Village Park is about as good as the neighbourhood gets. I’m Jatin Dua, RE/MAX Quantum Realty.

Phase one of a three-tower plan

Monarch built three condominium towers in Liberty Village: Battery Park, then Zip at 80 Western Battery Road, then Vibe at 100 Western Battery Road. As the Globe and Mail described it, each tower has its own gym, party room and guest suite, and each was given one larger feature that residents of all three could use.

Battery Park’s feature is the pool, along with a hot tub and steam rooms. When Zip was built, the plans included a two-storey pedestrian bridge from Zip to these facilities, which tells you how central they were to the whole development.

For a buyer, that history explains the fee. Battery Park houses facilities that serve far more than its own 316 suites, and the cost of running and eventually replacing them is shared through agreements between the corporations. How fairly that sharing works is one of the most important things to check here.

Two entrances and a base of shops

The building sits on Lynn Williams Street facing Liberty Village Park, with ground-floor commercial space attached and a second entrance from Western Battery Road on the north side. The two frontages make it feel more connected to the neighbourhood than a tower set back on a podium.

The park frontage matters. Suites on the south and park-facing sides look over open space rather than into another tower, which is not something you get in much of Liberty Village. If you are comparing two suites at similar prices, the view and the exposure will usually decide which one resells better.

Liberty Village itself is a mix of converted industrial buildings, newer towers and a dense strip of restaurants, gyms and grocery along Liberty Street. It is a neighbourhood built around walking, and most residents do not need a car for daily errands. Transit and walkability details are in the data panel on this page.

Small suites, and who they work for

Suites here run from about 340 sq ft to roughly 1,176 sq ft. The bottom of that range is a true studio, the middle is one-bedrooms and one-plus-dens in the 500s and 600s, and the top is two-bedrooms that would still be modest for a family.

Small suites are a strength for investors. Liberty Village has steady rental demand from young professionals, and a compact unit with parking and a pool in the building is easy to lease. For an owner-occupier, they work best as a first purchase you expect to sell or rent out within a few years.

If you need a real second bedroom, focus on the larger plans and check the layout closely. A one-plus-den in the 600s can look like a two-bedroom in photos and feel very different in person.

Being the oldest of the Monarch three

Battery Park was registered in December 2006, about two years before Zip, and it is now one of the older condo towers in Liberty Village. That has advantages. The building has a long run of budgets, reserve fund studies and board minutes you can read, and you can see how the corporation has handled the cost of running a pool for twenty years.

It also means the building is at the age when big items come due. Pools, hot tubs and steam rooms are expensive to maintain and to rebuild, and because they serve three corporations, any major work raises questions about who pays what. A healthy reserve fund and a clear sharing agreement are what make this building a good buy rather than a risky one.

Commenters on UrbanToronto’s forum have praised Monarch’s interior finishing in its Liberty Village buildings, while being less kind about the exteriors and lobbies. That is a common pattern for this developer and this era: the suites are the strong part.

What it costs to own here

The building average is around $819 per square foot, a little below Zip next door at about $841. That puts Battery Park among the more affordable ways into Liberty Village on a per-square-foot basis, partly because it is one of the oldest towers in the neighbourhood.

Fees on current listings average about $1.14 per square foot, which is high at first glance. But that fee includes parking, heat, water and air conditioning, and it pays for a building that runs a pool, hot tub and steam rooms shared with its neighbours. Small suites also always show a higher fee per square foot, because some costs are spread per unit rather than strictly by size.

Two suites are listed for sale as I write this, both one-plus-dens in the 600s, asking between $529,000 and $555,900. With only two listings, I would look at sold data for the past year before setting an offer, which you can get from my building sold report.

Building specifications

Amenities at Battery Park Condos

The pool, hot tub and steam rooms are the reason people single this building out, and they are shared with the neighbouring Monarch towers. The rest is the standard Monarch package of gym, party room and guest suite, which for a small-suite building is a lot of shared space to use.

Jatin’s honest take on Battery Park Condos

Battery Park Condos — 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.