One City Hall Place, 111 Elizabeth St: A Hariri Pontarini Mid-Rise

One City Hall Place is the building I show buyers who want to walk to work downtown but do not want to live 50 floors up. It is a long, low, stone-and-glass block behind City Hall with more than 500 suites, a lap pool and a fee that already covers heat, cooling and water. The catch is the corner itself: this is one of the busiest pockets of the city, and it never fully goes quiet. I’m Jatin Dua, RE/MAX Quantum Realty.

A mid-rise with a tower’s suite count

Most downtown buildings with 500-plus suites are towers. This one is not. Hariri Pontarini, working with Young + Wright, designed it as a U-shaped block with varied massing, wrapped in stone, glass and metal, with retail and office space at street level and suites above.

That shape matters for daily life. You are never more than a short elevator ride from the street, and many suites look into the courtyard of the U rather than straight onto traffic. The flip side is that a wide, low building has long corridors, and with this many suites the elevators and the garage still feel busy at rush hour.

Sources disagree on the height. Listing data says 16 storeys, the architect says 17 storeys of suites over the ground floor, and a Toronto Life rental feature describes an 18th-floor penthouse as the top floor. The difference is probably how the ground floor and penthouse levels are counted, but ask for the floor plan of the actual level you are buying on.

Hariri Pontarini’s project page also describes a second phase with a 50-storey elliptical tower at Bay and Dundas. Treat 111 Elizabeth as its own corporation and confirm in the status certificate exactly which facilities, if any, are shared with a neighbouring building.

Layouts from 350 to almost 2,000 square feet

Suites range from roughly 350 sq ft studios to penthouse-level plans of close to 1,950 sq ft. Right now the listings cluster in studios, one-bedrooms and one-plus-dens between about 450 and 700 sq ft, with the occasional two-plus-den near 1,000 sq ft.

The architect’s brief called for large expanses of glass and balconies, and that is how most suites read: bright, with a balcony off the living room. In a 2007 building I would still check the window seals and the balcony doors on any suite you view. They are the parts that age first.

If you are choosing between a studio and a one-bedroom here, my advice is to stretch for the bedroom with a door. Studios at this size are easy to rent to students and hospital staff, but they are harder to resell to an owner-occupier.

The retail and office space at the base is worth a look too. Commercial neighbours at grade bring deliveries, signage and foot traffic, but they also put the lobby on a lit, active frontage. Ask the property manager how the commercial units share costs with the residential side, because that split shows up in your fee.

Living directly behind City Hall

The address is the whole story. You are behind City Hall and Nathan Phillips Square, a few minutes from the Eaton Centre, and close to the University Avenue hospital row and the courthouses. For anyone who works at the City, in the hospitals or in the core, the commute is a walk.

Toronto Life’s rental feature put it plainly: this is one of the busiest corners in the city and it is not especially quiet. Events on the square, sirens heading to the hospitals and Dundas Street traffic are part of the package. Suites facing the inner courtyard and higher floors are the ones to target if noise bothers you.

The blocks around Bay and Dundas keep changing, with several towers proposed or under way nearby. Before you buy, check the City of Toronto development applications map for anything that could change your view. Transit, schools and parks are in the data panel on this page.

The upside of that constant activity is convenience. Groceries, the Eaton Centre food court, the restaurants on Dundas and the shops on Queen are all within an easy walk, and on a winter night you can skate on the square without getting on a streetcar.

What 111 Elizabeth costs per square foot

The building average sits around $818 per square foot. That is below the newer glass towers on the Bay corridor, such as Burano at 832 Bay at about $914 and Lumière at 770 Bay at about $924, which is roughly what I would expect for a 2007 mid-rise. You give up the newer finishes and the higher views, and you gain a lower price per foot and a pool those towers charge more to reach.

Current asking prices across six listings run from about $400,000 to about $800,000 near 1,000 sq ft, with most one-bedrooms asking between the low $500,000s and about $600,000.

Fees on active listings average about $1.04 per square foot, or roughly $430 to $950 a month depending on size. That looks high next to a newer tower, but here it covers heat, air conditioning, water and building insurance, and parking where the suite has a space. Add those back onto a building that meters them separately and the gap narrows. For actual sold prices, see the data panel or my building sold report.

Building specifications

Amenities at One City Hall Place

A lap pool and steam room in a mid-rise is the standout here, along with a rooftop terrace with barbecues. Pools are expensive to run and eventually to rebuild, so read what the reserve fund study says about the pool equipment before you treat it as free.

Jatin’s honest take on One City Hall Place

One City Hall Place — 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.