97 Lawton Blvd: Deer Park Boutique Condo Where the Fee Sets the Price

97 Lawton Boulevard is a quiet, nine-storey boutique building in Deer Park with 37 suites, a rooftop terrace and an outlook over Mount Pleasant Cemetery. Two-bedrooms here have been asking under $500,000, which is remarkable for this neighbourhood. The reason is the maintenance fee, and whether this building is a bargain or a trap depends entirely on what that fee is paying for. I’m Jatin Dua, RE/MAX Quantum Realty.

Woodcliffe’s first building

Woodcliffe lists 97 Lawton as its first residential project, finished in 1994. The architects were Page + Steele, one of Toronto’s long-established residential firms, and the interiors were by Gluckstein Design. For a building of only 37 suites, that is a serious team.

It is a brick building of nine storeys on a residential side street, the kind of mid-rise that blends into Deer Park rather than standing over it. Sources differ slightly on the suite count: condos.ca lists 37, and a recent listing describes the building as having 35. Either way, you will know most of your neighbours by sight.

The registration date and completion date also differ by a few months, with the corporation registered in November 1993 and Woodcliffe giving 1994 as the completion year. That is normal for the period and not something to worry about.

A building this small also changes how you should think about governance. With 37 owners, the board is drawn from a handful of people, a single owner in arrears matters to the budget, and every major decision is felt by everyone. That can work very well when owners are engaged. Read the minutes to see which kind of building this is.

The fee is the whole story

The two suites listed when I checked, both two-bedrooms of roughly 900 to 1,000 sq ft, carried fees of about $2,160 to $2,265 a month. That works out to around $2.33 per square foot, which is two to three times what most Toronto condos charge.

Some of that is explained by what is included: heat, hydro, water, parking and building insurance, with a recent listing also naming air conditioning and locker maintenance. Bundled hydro and heat can add several hundred dollars a month to a fee compared with a building that meters them separately.

Some of it is scale. A 37-suite building still needs a roof, a garage, elevators, a boiler and a manager, and those fixed costs are split among very few owners. Even so, a fee at this level needs an explanation in writing. Before you make an offer, get the budget, the reserve fund study, the last three years of fee increases and any recent board minutes, and confirm whether any special assessment is planned. If the answers are not clear, walk away.

Small building, compact suites

Suites run from about 556 sq ft to about 1,003 sq ft, so the building is a mix of one-bedrooms and modest two-bedrooms rather than large downsizer suites. A recent listing noted forced-air gas heating and central air conditioning for its suite, which is more common in townhouses than in condo towers and worth confirming suite by suite.

Views vary by exposure. Woodcliffe describes the building as overlooking Mount Pleasant Cemetery, which means a long green outlook for the suites that face it and little chance of a tower going up in front of them on that side.

Shared spaces are modest: a rooftop terrace, a library or party room, a meeting room, a private courtyard, underground parking and visitor parking. Condos.ca lists pets among the building’s features, but that is not a policy, so read the declaration and rules before you rely on it.

Deer Park on a side street

Lawton Boulevard runs north of St. Clair, west of Yonge, through one of the quieter residential pockets in midtown. You are a short walk from the shops, restaurants and services at Yonge and St. Clair, and the cemetery’s paths are close by for long walks.

The comparison buyers usually make is with the Deer Park Residences at 1 Deer Park Crescent, a 58-suite building from 1998. It trades at a much higher price per square foot, and in my view the fee here is the main reason for the gap. Resale buyers at 97 Lawton are a narrower group, so allow for the possibility that a suite takes longer to sell when you eventually move on. Transit, schools, parks and Walk Score are shown in the data panel on this page.

Cheap to buy, expensive to carry

Condos.ca reports a building average of about $535 per square foot, against about $811 at the Deer Park Residences. When I checked, two two-bedrooms were listed, asking roughly $479,000 to $499,000. Those are some of the lowest asking prices for two-bedrooms anywhere near Yonge and St. Clair.

The market is pricing in the fee. If, for illustration, a comparable building nearby charged about $0.90 per square foot, a 950 sq ft suite here costs roughly $1,300 a month more to carry. Over a mortgage, that difference is worth a large part of the price gap, so the low price is not free money.

The right way to value a suite here is on total monthly cost: mortgage, fee and taxes, minus the utilities you would otherwise pay. Run that against a comparable two-bedroom nearby and decide on the result. Ask me for the building sold report for the recorded sales.

Building specifications

Amenities at 97 Lawton Boulevard

There is no concierge, pool or gym; this is a small building where the rooftop terrace and the courtyard are the shared spaces. For most owners here, the amenity is the quiet street and the green outlook.

Jatin’s honest take on 97 Lawton Boulevard

97 Lawton Boulevard — frequently asked questions

Looking at Yorkville, the Annex and Midtown more broadly? Start with my Toronto community guide — the neighbourhoods, what each pocket is like, and how they compare.