One Park West Townhomes, Cole St: Regent Park Towns With Low Fees

One Park West Townhomes are for the buyer who wants a front door on the street, three floors of living space and a low monthly fee, all within the downtown core. They were among the first market homes built in the Regent Park revitalization, and the neighbourhood has been rebuilt around them since. The trade is that you pay your own utilities and the fee covers very little, which is exactly why it is low. I’m Jatin Dua, RE/MAX Quantum Realty.

Part of Regent Park’s first phase

One Park West was the last market condominium component of Phase One of the Regent Park revitalization, built by The Daniels Corporation. UrbanToronto’s coverage at the time described a 13-storey tower on Sackville Street by Core Architects and modern townhomes along Cole Street, with market and subsidized homes designed to look the same from the outside.

The townhomes are their own corporation, TSCC-2170, separate from the tower at 260 Sackville Street. That matters: different budget, different fee, different reserve fund. When you buy a town here, you are not paying for the tower’s amenities, and you do not get them either.

Daniels chose brick, spandrel panel and fibre-cement cladding for the townhomes rather than stucco or aluminum siding, which UrbanToronto pointed out at the time. Fifteen years on, that is a point in the complex’s favour, because cladding is one of the costlier items to repair on a townhouse complex.

Three storeys and a street address

The homes are three-storey townhouses of about 1,062 to 1,628 square feet. That gives you separate floors for living, sleeping and work, which is something no condo suite of the same size can do.

Each home has its own street address on Cole, Oak or Regent Street. You walk out of your front door rather than through a lobby, you have no elevator to wait for, and you have a lower fee because there is no concierge, pool or hallway to run.

Stairs are the trade. Three floors of stairs suit a young family or a couple with a home office, but they are a real issue for anyone with mobility concerns or planning to age in place. Condos.ca lists barbecues as permitted, which tells you outdoor space is part of the package; confirm what each home has.

Who maintains what in a condo townhouse

Condominium townhouses split responsibility differently from a tower. Depending on the declaration, the corporation may look after roofs, exterior walls, windows and the shared garage, while the owner looks after everything inside, and sometimes the front door, decks or terraces too. The declaration and the status certificate are where you find the actual split.

That split determines how much of your future spending runs through the fee and how much comes out of your own pocket. A low fee with a short list of corporation responsibilities is not necessarily cheaper than a higher fee that covers more. Ask management for the schedule of responsibilities before you compare homes.

Look at the shared parking garage closely. In townhouse complexes with a common underground garage, the membrane and drainage are often the largest single items in the reserve fund study, and they affect every owner whether they park there or not.

A neighbourhood that has been rebuilt around you

When these homes were finished in 2011, much of Regent Park was still a construction site. Since then the revitalization has added the park across Sackville Street, new community facilities, shops and many more homes, and it is continuing in later phases.

That is the investment case and the daily reality together. The area has changed a great deal, and it will keep changing, with more construction nearby for years. Buyers who want a finished, settled street should know that going in. The panel on this page covers transit, parks and schools.

Why the fee is low, and what you pay instead

The fee here covers building insurance and parking, plus common-area costs, and that is about it. You pay your own heat, hydro and water, and you take care of the inside of your home. That is normal for condominium townhouses, but it means you should never compare this fee directly against a tower suite where heat and cooling are included.

For context, the One Park West tower at 260 Sackville has averaged about $701 per square foot with a fee near $1.19 per square foot. A town here costs far less per month in fees, but your utility bills sit on top. Ask the seller for a year of utility bills to see the real total.

Against freehold row houses in nearby Cabbagetown and Corktown, the comparison runs the other way. Those houses usually carry no condo fee at all, but they are often older and need more of your own money for roofs, windows and heating systems, and they rarely come with underground parking.

There was only one townhome listed for sale at the time of writing, so I won’t quote an asking range from a single listing. My building sold report shows what has actually traded in the complex.

Building specifications

Amenities at One Park West Townhomes

There is no amenity package to speak of, and that is the point. You are paying for your own home and a shared garage and grounds, not for a gym or a concierge, which is why the fee stays low. For many buyers that is a feature: you are not funding a gym you would never use, and your fee is less exposed to big amenity repairs down the road.

Jatin’s honest take on One Park West Townhomes

One Park West Townhomes — 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.