Ritz-Carlton Residences, 183 Wellington St W: Hotel Living, Real Costs

The Residences of the Ritz-Carlton is not really a condo building in the usual sense. It is about 158 private homes stacked on top of a working luxury hotel, and you are paying for the hotel as much as for the suite. For the right buyer that is exactly the point. For everyone else, the carrying costs settle the question quickly. I’m Jatin Dua, RE/MAX Quantum Realty.

A hotel tower with homes on top

The tower rises 53 storeys and about 210 metres on Wellington Street West, and it was one of the tallest buildings in the city when it opened in 2011. Kohn Pedersen Fox of New York designed it with Page + Steele as the local architect, and EllisDon built it. Its glass facade slopes outward, and the crown is visible from the Gardiner as you drive into downtown.

The hotel occupies the lower 20 floors. Floors 21 and 22 hold residents’ amenities and some suites, and floors 23 to 52 are residences, with a full-floor penthouse at the top. Mechanical equipment sits on the 53rd floor.

The suite count is reported differently depending on the source: 156 in the Globe and Mail, 159 on Wikipedia and 158 in listing data. The variation probably reflects suites that were combined or reconfigured, but I would not rely on any one number.

The sky lobby and the private elevator

Residents arrive under the same porte-cochere as hotel guests but use their own lobby. Elevators take you to a sky lobby on the 21st floor, where the shared rooms are: meeting rooms, a screening room, a billiard room and a guest suite. From there, a second set of elevators opens directly at suite front doors.

That private-elevator arrival is the real luxury here, more than any finish. It means you share a landing with very few people, and in many suites guests step straight into your home. Some plans also have a separate service entrance so caterers can reach the kitchen without passing through the living space.

Inside, the plans are large and conventional rather than loft-like. Even the one-bedrooms here start above 1,200 sq ft, and the sample suite the Globe and Mail toured used a split-bedroom plan, with the bedrooms on opposite sides of the living space. That layout suits couples and anyone who has guests to stay, and it is one reason a one-bedroom here can compete with a two-bedroom elsewhere.

One thing you do not get is a balcony. The suites are sealed behind floor-to-ceiling glass, and outdoor space is a furnished shared roof terrace with a wet bar. If a private terrace matters to you, this building cannot provide it.

What the hotel adds, and what it costs

Owners can use the hotel’s spa, salon, pool and fitness centre, order room service and use the hotel restaurant. The Ritz-Carlton spa alone is about 23,000 sq ft. There is also a smaller residents’ gym on the amenity floors.

Listing data shows the building managed by the Ritz-Carlton’s own property management. That is part of what you are buying, and it is also why fees sit well above an ordinary downtown tower. Ask exactly which hotel services are covered by the common expenses and which are billed when you use them.

The other question with any hotel-residence building is the relationship between the two owners. The hotel portion is owned by the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan and run by the Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company. The shared-facilities and reciprocal agreements between the hotel and TSCC-2165 decide how costs are split for the structure, elevators, loading and systems they share. Read them in full.

Resale is a small, slow market. With so few suites and such high prices, there may be only a handful of comparable sales in a year, and each suite can differ a great deal in size, view and finish. Pricing a suite here takes judgement, not a simple per-square-foot average, and buyers should expect longer marketing times when they eventually sell.

The location in practice

You are across the street from Roy Thomson Hall, a short walk from the financial district, TIFF Bell Lightbox and the King Street theatres, and close to the Rogers Centre. For a buyer who works on Bay Street and goes out in the Entertainment District, it is hard to do better.

The flip side is that it is not quiet at street level, and event nights bring traffic to Wellington. Up on the residential floors that matters far less, but think about it if you will be coming and going by car. Transit and nearby food are in the data panel on this page.

Prices and fees at the Ritz-Carlton

The building average is about $1,581 per square foot, among the highest of any resale condominium in this part of downtown. Even the smallest suites here are over 1,200 sq ft, so there is no entry-level product.

Eight suites are listed for sale right now, asking between $1,899,000 and $5,395,000. Most are large one-bedroom plans, which tells you how generous the one-bedroom layouts are in this building, and how thin the market is for comparing two-bedrooms and penthouses.

Monthly fees on the current listings range from a little over $2,000 to about $4,100. Those fees include heat, air conditioning, water and insurance, but not parking. Ask for the parking charge separately, ask for the last two budgets to see how quickly fees have risen, and compare the fee to what you would pay for a non-hotel luxury building such as Yorkville stock. For most buyers that comparison is the decision.

Building specifications

Amenities at Residences of the Ritz-Carlton

The amenity list is short on paper because the hotel supplies most of it. In daily life that means a spa, pool and room service downstairs and a private elevator to your door, which no ordinary condominium can match.

Jatin’s honest take on Residences of the Ritz-Carlton

Residences of the Ritz-Carlton — 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.