Graphic Arts Building, 73 Richmond St W: A 1913 Hard Loft in the Core

The Graphic Arts Building is what I show buyers who say they want a real loft and then admit they also want to walk to a bank tower. It is a 1913 stone building with Ionic columns on Richmond Street West, a few minutes from Bay Street, and it holds only about 64 suites. It is not for everyone, and the suite you pick here matters more than in almost any building downtown. I’m Jatin Dua, RE/MAX Quantum Realty.

A 1913 building with a magazine’s history

Francis S. Baker designed this building in 1913, the same architect behind the Traders Bank Building and the General Accident Insurance Building. The Richmond Street front is classical in the old commercial sense: a limestone base, Ionic columns, and a cornice lined with dentils, with the same stone carried up into the top of the facade.

For decades it was the home of Saturday Night, the national magazine founded in 1873 whose contributors included Stephen Leacock, Robertson Davies and Margaret Atwood. The magazine left and later stopped publishing, and the building became lofts. The lobby still nods to that past, and there is a plaque to B. K. Sandwell, the magazine’s editor from 1932 to 1952.

That history is the reason to buy here. You are not paying for a glass tower with a loft label. You are buying into one of the few real pre-war commercial buildings in the core that people actually live in.

The suite you choose is everything

The size range runs from about 348 sq ft to over 2,100 sq ft, which tells you how irregular the floor plans are. A conversion like this has to fit suites around the original structure, so no two floors behave quite the same, and light varies widely from one suite to the next.

The extremes matter most. BlogTO featured a lower-level suite here with high ceilings but a single window and very little daylight. At the other end, penthouse suites have access to the roof. Between those, the suites facing Richmond get the big original windows, while the inner and rear suites may look onto the walls of neighbouring buildings.

So before you fall for the brick and the ceiling height, go at noon and again at 5 p.m. and stand in the suite with the lights off. If you are buying below grade or facing the rear, price that in, because the next buyer will.

Heat and cooling in the fee, and very little else to run

Condos.ca lists the fee as covering common elements, heat, air conditioning, building insurance and water. Having heat and cooling bundled is a real advantage in an old masonry building, where your winter and summer costs could otherwise swing a lot. Hydro is not listed, so expect your own meter for that.

The amenity list is short: an elevator, security, and Beanfield fibre available in the building. There is no gym, pool or party room. That keeps the operating budget simpler than in a tower, but the trade-off is a heritage envelope, original masonry and old windows that all have to be maintained by only about 64 owners.

Condos.ca also flags a pet restriction. I have not seen the bylaw itself, so if you have a dog, ask for the rules in writing before you make an offer rather than after.

Living on Richmond Street West

This is a working downtown street, not a residential one. During the week you are surrounded by office towers, food courts and the PATH; on a Sunday morning the blocks around you can feel almost empty. Some buyers love that quiet, and some find it lonely.

The upside is practical. If you work on Bay Street or in the towers around King and Bay, you are walking to work in a few minutes, in any weather, and the restaurants and theatres of the core are close. If you want a grocery store on the corner and a neighbourhood feel, St. Lawrence or the streets around Queen West will suit you better.

One more thing about the street: the blocks around Richmond, Bay and Adelaide keep getting new office and residential towers. A small five-storey building surrounded by tall ones can lose light and views over time, so before you buy, check the City of Toronto development applications map for anything proposed on the neighbouring lots, especially if your suite faces the rear or the side.

What the Graphic Arts Building costs

Condos.ca puts the building average at about $760 per square foot. That is well under what newer towers in the Financial District ask, and it reflects two things: the very large and very small suites pull the average around, and buyers discount suites with poor light or no parking.

When I checked, there were no active listings, which is normal for a 64-suite building. It also means comparables are thin. With a building this small, one unusual sale can move the average a long way, so I would not rely on the building average alone for a specific suite.

Fees here cover heat and cooling, so compare total monthly cost, not the fee alone, against a tower where you pay your own heating and cooling. If you are weighing a suite here, I can pull the recent sales through my building sold report and adjust for floor, exposure and light.

Building specifications

Amenities at Graphic Arts Building

There is essentially no amenity package here beyond security and an elevator. You buy this building for the suite and the address, and you get a gym and a social life elsewhere downtown.

Jatin’s honest take on Graphic Arts Building

Graphic Arts Building — frequently asked questions

Looking at St. Lawrence, the Financial District and Downtown Yonge more broadly? Start with my Toronto community guide — the neighbourhoods, what each pocket is like, and how they compare.