King Charlotte Condos, 11 Charlotte St: Small Suites, Stacked-Box Design

King Charlotte is the building I show buyers who want a King West address without living on King Street itself. It sits a few steps north on Charlotte, a short side street between King and Adelaide, and it is one of the more distinctive towers in the area to look at. The suites are compact, though, and the monthly fee has climbed a long way from what buyers were quoted at launch. I’m Jatin Dua, RE/MAX Quantum Realty.

A stack of boxes on a narrow lot

The look is the reason most people remember this building. architectsAlliance describes it as a series of stacked and stepped boxes worked onto a tight site: a double-height glass base, a five-storey ‘shadowbox’ that pushes out toward Charlotte Street, a slim tower above, and a glass pavilion on the roof.

The shadowbox is clad in alternating vertical strips of masonry and glass, while the tower has horizontal balcony bands on its north and south faces and is glazed on the east and west. After dark the rooftop pavilion is lit red, which makes the building easy to spot from King Street.

At grade, the base steps back from the street to widen the sidewalk, and it holds the residential lobby along with a restaurant. That setback matters more than it sounds on a street this narrow; the entrance does not feel squeezed.

Compact suites, nine-foot ceilings, not every suite has a balcony

Suites range from about 422 to 962 square feet, in one-bedroom, one-bedroom-plus-den, two-bedroom and three-bedroom plans. Launch coverage put five to nine suites on each floor and nine-foot ceilings throughout, with gas stoves as standard, which is still uncommon in downtown towers of this size.

The trade-off is space. A three-bedroom under 1,000 square feet is a tight plan, and blogTO’s review at launch pointed out small kitchens with little room for a table or island, and that many suites were drawn without balconies. If outdoor space matters to you, confirm it on the floor plan before you book a showing rather than assuming it.

Because the sizes skew small, most of what trades here is one-bedroom and one-plus-den stock. That makes the building liquid for investors and first-time buyers, and less useful for anyone hoping to grow into a suite.

Two elevators, and parking sold as an extra

The 2012 launch materials listed two elevators serving 232 suites across 32 floors. That ratio was flagged as a concern at the time, and it is the first thing I would ask current residents about: how long the morning wait is, and how the building copes when one car is down for maintenance.

The automatic panel on this page shows the elevator records that are on file. Read it alongside the status certificate and the reserve fund study, because a two-car building that is now about ten years old will have elevator modernization on its long-range plan sooner or later, and that work is disruptive with only one car left in service.

At launch in 2012, parking was offered as an add-on at $39,900 and a storage locker at $3,950, with suites starting from $311,900. In other words, many original buyers took a suite with neither, and that is still how much of the building trades.

If you need a car, do not assume a suite comes with a space. Check the listing and the status certificate for a deeded or exclusive-use parking unit and a locker, and if the suite has none, ask whether any are available to rent or buy from other owners in the building. A one-bedroom with parking and a locker is a different product from one without, and it should be priced that way.

Investors should think about this from the tenant’s side too. Most tenants in this pocket do not drive to work, but the ones who do will pay for a space, and a suite without one narrows the pool of renters for larger units.

Living on Charlotte rather than on King

Charlotte Street is short and runs north from King toward Adelaide. Being a few steps off King means you get the restaurants and bars of King West and the Entertainment District without the streetcar and late-night traffic directly under your window, which was a selling point at launch and still holds.

This is a busy, built-up pocket. Theatre Park sits a few blocks east on King, and the blocks around Charlotte, Peter and Blue Jays Way are lined with towers from the same era. Expect construction somewhere nearby for most of the years you own here; that is the reality of this part of downtown.

Pricing and fees: what the numbers say

Condos.ca puts the building average at about $1,006 per square foot. That is broadly in line with Theatre Park at about $1,025 and above Lofts 399 near Spadina at about $912, which reflects King Charlotte’s younger age and its tower views.

The fee is where I slow buyers down. At launch the projected maintenance was $0.52 per square foot. Across the four current listings, monthly fees run from roughly $505 on the smallest one-bedrooms to about $1,250 on the two-bedrooms in the 900-square-foot range, which works out to somewhere around $1.05 to $1.35 per square foot. Condos.ca lists only water as included, so hydro and heat are on top of that.

Active asking prices for one-bedrooms under 500 square feet ran from $399,900 to $565,000 across three current listings, a wide spread that tells you condition, floor and view are doing a lot of work. With four suites for sale and three for rent at the time of writing, there is choice but not a glut. For the building’s actual recorded sales, see the data panel or my building sold report.

Building specifications

Amenities at King Charlotte Condos

An outdoor pool and a rooftop deck in a 232-suite building is a good summer package for downtown, and Beanfield Fibre is a real plus if you work from home. Outside the summer months the amenity list is fairly standard: gym, party room and concierge.

Jatin’s honest take on King Charlotte Condos

King Charlotte 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.