Deer Park Residences, 1 Deer Park Cres: Intracorp’s Boutique at St. Clair

Deer Park Residences is the kind of building people walk past on St. Clair West for years before they notice it. Intracorp completed it in 1998: ten storeys of brick and glass, a small number of suites, shops at street level, and a fee that covers heat, air conditioning and parking. It is a quiet, practical buy at Yonge and St. Clair, and it has a few details you should pin down first. I’m Jatin Dua, RE/MAX Quantum Realty.

A boutique building on a busy corner

This is a small building by midtown standards. condos.ca describes a brick-and-glass tower with clean lines and retail at grade, and the scale is the point: with somewhere around 50 suites, you know your neighbours, the elevator is rarely crowded and the lobby feels like a private building rather than a hotel.

The address is on Deer Park Crescent, but the building faces St. Clair Avenue West, and a recent listing described a suite overlooking St. Clair. That is the trade. You are on one of the city’s best-served stretches, with Yonge and St. Clair a short walk east, but St. Clair is a busy road, so street-facing suites will hear it. Suites facing the side streets are quieter.

Be aware of one discrepancy. condos.ca lists 58 units, while its own overview text says 48 residential suites with retail below. The difference may be the commercial units or how parking and lockers are counted. The status certificate will settle it, and it matters because it tells you how many owners share the costs.

Suites, ceilings and the fee inclusions

Suites run from about 498 square feet at the small end to roughly 1,621 square feet in the largest plans, so the building covers studios and compact one-bedrooms through to large two-bedrooms that suit downsizers. A recent listing described nine-foot ceilings in its suite. I would not assume that applies on every floor without seeing the plan.

The fee is the strongest feature after the location. condos.ca lists air conditioning, heat, common elements, building insurance, parking and water as included, and a recent listing gave the same list. Having heat and cooling in the fee is common in buildings of this era and rare in new ones, and it makes your monthly cost predictable through a Toronto summer and winter.

Hydro is not on the inclusion list, so expect a separate electricity bill for lights and appliances. A recent listing also mentioned underground parking with bike racks and an out-of-suite locker for its suite. Confirm what comes with the specific suite you are looking at, because in a small building there is little slack to buy an extra space later.

Security, pets and how the building runs

condos.ca lists a concierge and security guard. A recent listing, however, described a security desk staffed on set hours, weekdays during business hours and shorter hours on weekends, rather than around the clock. If 24-hour staffing matters to you, ask management directly what the current schedule is.

The same listing described the pet rule as one dog of up to 30 pounds or two cats. condos.ca lists a pet restriction. I would treat the listing as a guide only and read the rule in the declaration and rules before you bring an animal into the picture.

The amenity list is short: a rooftop deck, a gym and a party room, plus visitor parking. For a building this size, that is reasonable, and it keeps the fee from carrying a pool or a big amenity floor.

Yonge and St. Clair on foot

The day-to-day reality is that almost everything is walkable. Yonge and St. Clair has grocery stores, restaurants and the subway, and a recent listing pointed to the Rosehill Reservoir park as a short walk away for green space. The automatic panel on this page covers transit, schools and parks in more detail.

The area around Yonge and St. Clair has been adding new towers for years, so expect construction cranes and new neighbours nearby over the life of your ownership. A small 1998 building with a known history can be a calmer alternative to buying into one of them. You can read years of board minutes and reserve fund updates here, which is something no pre-construction buyer can do.

Pricing: a midtown boutique at a reasonable per-square-foot

condos.ca puts the building average at about $811 per square foot. That is a modest figure for a staffed building within walking distance of Yonge and St. Clair, and it sits below what newer towers on the same corridor generally ask. Part of that discount is age, and part of it is the modest amenity list; neither is a reason to pay less than the suite is worth, but both are worth weighing.

At the time of writing there were no suites listed for sale or rent, which is typical of a small building where owners stay a long time. That means you will often wait for the right suite, and when one comes up it is worth moving quickly if the numbers work.

When you compare fees, remember that heat, air conditioning and parking are included here and are billed separately in most newer buildings. My building sold report can pull together the sold history so you have real comparables before you make an offer.

Building specifications

Amenities at Deer Park Residences

The amenities are basic: a rooftop deck, a gym and a party room, with a staffed desk at the front. This is a building you choose for location, size and fee inclusions, not for its amenity floor.

Jatin’s honest take on Deer Park Residences

Deer Park Residences — 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.