85 Bloor St E: Burnac Tower at Bloor and Church With Hydro in the Fee

85 Bloor Street East gives you a Bloor Street address a few minutes from Yonge for a lot less than the newer towers around it. It is a 20-storey Burnac building from 2005, mostly one-bedrooms and one-plus-dens, and it does something unusual: hydro is in the maintenance fee. That makes the fee look high, and it is the first thing I explain to buyers. I’m Jatin Dua, RE/MAX Quantum Realty.

A Burnac building with a bronze-and-stone face

Burnac Corporation developed 85 Bloor East; the same firm was behind the Tiffany & Co. building at 85 Bloor West, according to a Globe and Mail feature from the sales period. Page & Steele were the architects, and Chapman Design Group did the interiors.

The exterior is bronze-tinted glass with bisque-coloured precast stone, which gives it a warmer, more traditional look than the all-glass towers that followed on this stretch of Bloor. Inside, the lobby is circular with a water feature, and the building has a 24-hour concierge.

The Globe piece also gives a sense of the original pitch: six appliances, granite kitchen counters, marble bathrooms and hardwood throughout, with occupancy planned for spring 2004. Twenty years on, many suites have been renovated, so treat those as a baseline, not a promise.

Mostly compact suites with nine-foot ceilings

condos.ca shows suites from about 448 to 1,225 square feet, and the Globe feature quoted 510 to 1,080 square feet at the sales stage. Either way, this is a one-bedroom, one-plus-den and two-bedroom building, with relatively few large suites. All four suites for sale at the time of writing were one-bedrooms or one-plus-dens.

One building summary lists nine-foot ceilings, granite breakfast bars and marble or limestone bathroom tile, which is a good standard for a 2005 building. Ask the listing agent to confirm the ceiling height for the specific suite, since lower floors and units with bulkheads can differ.

The layouts suit singles and couples, and investors who want a suite near Yonge and Bloor that rents easily. Families needing three bedrooms will not find them here.

Light and exposure vary a lot in a building of this shape. North-facing suites look across Bloor toward Rosedale; south-facing suites look over the Village and toward the core. Upper floors clear more of the neighbouring buildings, so expect a premium for height and for a south or corner exposure.

Why the fee looks high, and why it may not be

The headline fee per square foot at 85 Bloor is about $1.17 based on current listings. That looks expensive next to, say, The Central on Jarvis at about $0.81. The difference is what it pays for: condos.ca lists common elements, heat, air conditioning, hydro, building insurance and water as included.

Hydro in the fee is uncommon. In most buildings you pay your own electricity bill on top of the fee, so to compare fairly you have to add a realistic monthly hydro cost back to the other building. Once you do, the gap narrows. The trade-off is that you have less control: a heavy user and a light user pay the same.

Parking is not on the inclusions list. If the suite has a space, ask whether it carries its own separate fee, and confirm ownership of any parking or locker on the status certificate.

For landlords there is a quieter benefit. With hydro, heat and cooling in the fee, a tenant pays one rent and nothing else for the basics, which is easy to advertise and avoids utility accounts changing hands every lease. The flip side is that you, not the tenant, absorb any increase when the corporation’s utility costs go up.

Living on Bloor between Yonge and Church

You are on the south side of Bloor, a short walk from Yonge and Bloor and the shops and restaurants of Yorkville across Yonge. To the south is the Church-Wellesley Village, and to the north the quiet streets of Rosedale begin across the ravine.

This is a busy, built-up stretch, and it keeps changing. Several large towers have gone up on the blocks around Yonge and Bloor in recent years, so if a suite’s value depends on a view, ask what is approved or proposed on the lots around it. Transit, schools and walkability are covered in the automatic panel on this page.

Price per square foot and current asking prices

condos.ca puts the building average at about $849 per square foot. That is in line with 22 Condominiums on Wellesley at about $834 and a little below Radio City on Mutual Street at about $885, and it is well below what new towers at Yonge and Bloor ask.

At the time of writing there were four suites for sale. Asking prices ranged from about $430,000 to $549,000 across one-bedrooms of 500 to 599 square feet and one-plus-dens of 600 to 699 square feet. There were also five suites for rent, which tells you this is a building with a healthy investor and tenant base.

That supply cuts both ways. Choice is good for buyers, but when several similar one-bedrooms are listed at once, they compete with each other. Price your offer off recent sales in the data panel, not the highest asking price in the building.

Building specifications

Amenities at 85 Bloor

The package is a gym with saunas, a party room, a games room and a landscaped rooftop terrace with barbecues. It is a solid everyday set for a 2005 building; the rooftop is the standout, given the views up and down Bloor. There is no pool, which helps keep the fee from climbing further.

Jatin’s honest take on 85 Bloor

85 Bloor — frequently asked questions

Looking at Church–Wellesley, Corktown, Moss Park and Cabbagetown more broadly? Start with my Toronto community guide — the neighbourhoods, what each pocket is like, and how they compare.