The Bond Condos, 290 Adelaide St W: Pool and Rooftop by the TIFF Strip

The Bond is what most people picture when they think of an Entertainment District condo: a tall glass tower, compact suites, a pool and a roof deck, and the theatres and restaurants of John Street at the door. It does that job well. Whether it is the right building for you depends almost entirely on how much space you actually need. I’m Jatin Dua, RE/MAX Quantum Realty.

Lifetime, Core Architects and a tricky podium

Lifetime Developments opened sales here in 2011, and Core Architects designed the tower, with Tomas Pearce doing the interiors and gh3 on the landscape. Skygrid built it. Core has designed a lot of downtown towers, and this one follows their familiar formula of a glass tower on a more articulated base.

The base is a seven-storey podium in which the lower floors each differ, which slowed the early concrete work because every level needed custom formwork. Part of the intent was to give the street something more interesting than the blank walls of the Scotiabank Theatre complex to the north.

Sources disagree on size. UrbanToronto’s reporting describes 40 storeys and 369 suites, while condos.ca lists 42 floors and 393 units. Floor-count differences like this usually come from how mechanical and podium levels are numbered, but if the exact figure matters to you, check the declaration.

Compact suites, by design

Condos.ca puts the suite range at about 524 to 1,174 sq ft. That top end tells you the story: there are no very large suites here, and most of the building is one-bedrooms and one-plus-dens built for a downtown professional or an investor’s tenant.

Both suites for sale when I checked were one-bedrooms under 500 sq ft, which sits below the range condos.ca quotes for the building. That gap is common when listings report interior area only, or when a builder’s figures include the balcony. Get the floor plan and confirm the measured interior area before comparing price per square foot.

In a small suite the layout matters more than the number. Look for a bedroom with a real window rather than a sliding-glass wall, and a kitchen that is not simply a strip along the entry corridor. The best plans here put the living space against the glass and keep the kitchen to one side.

Balconies matter more in a compact suite, because they are the only extra space you get. Check the depth and whether the balcony faces the street or the quieter side of the building.

The amenity floor is the selling point

The planned package was a 24-hour concierge, gym, party room, roof deck, sauna and swimming pool, and condos.ca lists a rooftop deck, gym, games room, concierge, outdoor pool and party room. For a building full of small suites, that matters: the roof deck and pool become your living room in summer.

Amenities like these cost money to run and to replace. A pool and a roof deck need membranes, pumps, heaters and furniture refreshed on a schedule, and those line items show up in the reserve fund study. At eight or nine years old, The Bond is approaching the point where the first round of that work starts.

Living on Adelaide at John

This is the core of the Entertainment District. The building faces Daniels’ Cinema Tower and The Pinnacle on Adelaide across the street, the Scotiabank Theatre is just north, and the TIFF Bell Lightbox, Roy Thomson Hall and the King Street theatres are a short walk south. You can walk to the financial district and to most of the downtown office core.

The noise is real. Adelaide is a busy one-way street, and John Street fills up during festival season and on weekend nights. Higher floors and suites facing away from Adelaide are calmer. If you want quiet evenings, this is not the block for you; if you want to walk to everything, it is hard to beat.

Daily convenience is the real reason people choose this block. Groceries, coffee, gyms and late-night food are all within a few minutes on foot, so many owners here do not keep a car at all. If that is you, a suite without parking is a perfectly sensible buy, and it lowers your entry price.

What The Bond costs, and the price-per-square-foot trap

Condos.ca puts the building average at about $960 per square foot. That is high relative to many Entertainment District towers of the same age, and part of the reason is mechanical: small suites almost always price higher per square foot than large ones, because the kitchen and bathroom cost the same to build whatever the suite size.

When I checked, the two active sale listings were small one-bedrooms asking between about $439,000 and $448,000, with monthly fees in the mid-$300s. Six suites were listed for lease, which tells you this building has a large rental population. The building sold report is the better guide to what has actually traded.

The fee includes heat, air conditioning and water alongside common elements and insurance. Hydro and parking are not listed as included, so confirm both before comparing with another building.

For a seller, the challenge in a building with this many similar small suites is standing out. Staging, good photographs of the view and a clear floor plan matter more here than in a building where every suite is different, because buyers will compare yours directly with two or three others on the market at the same time.

Building specifications

Amenities at The Bond Condos

A pool, sauna and roof deck are a strong package for a tower of compact suites, and they are the reason many renters choose this building over its neighbours. Budget for them, too: they are among the more expensive items in any reserve fund.

Jatin’s honest take on The Bond Condos

The Bond 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.