The Malthouse Loft Towns, Old Brewery Ln: 10 Three-Storey Brick Lofts

The Malthouse Loft Towns is one of the rarest formats in downtown Toronto: ten three-storey loft townhouses carved out of a 19th-century brick industrial building on a lane off Queen Street East. You get original brick, around 1,500 to 1,700 square feet, a private rooftop terrace and an underground parking space, with almost all your utilities in the fee. With only ten homes and a self-managed corporation, you also take on more responsibility than in a typical condo. I’m Jatin Dua, RE/MAX Quantum Realty.

A brewery-era building, rebuilt from the inside

The building takes its name from the brewery that once occupied Old Brewery Lane, and the Architectural Conservancy of Ontario lists it as a former industrial building dating from 1876, converted to residential use with work completed in 2004. It carries no heritage designation.

The conversion team was a serious one for a ten-unit project: Bird Construction as builder, Read Jones Christoffersen as structural engineer and du Toit Allsopp Hillier on the landscape. Toronto Star architecture critic Christopher Hume reviewed the project in 2008.

One recent listing described the project as a ground-up reimagining of a historic building, and noted a renovated unit was a finalist in the 2023 RenoMark awards. That tells you two things: the shell is old, and individual units can vary a lot depending on what owners have done since.

Three storeys, a roof terrace and a parking space

These are true townhouses inside a loft shell. A recent listing laid one out over three levels: a bedroom, bathroom and laundry on the main level, an open kitchen, living and dining floor above, and two more bedrooms on top, with 10-foot ceilings, original exposed brick and a skylight.

The same listing described a private rooftop terrace of about 340 square feet, plus an underground parking space and a locker. Private outdoor space of that size is rare anywhere near Queen and River.

At about 1,513 to 1,691 square feet, every unit here is family-sized by downtown condo standards. The trade-off is stairs: three storeys is a lot of climbing with groceries, a stroller or a bad knee, so be honest about whether that works for you over the long term.

A bedroom on the main level, away from the others, is a useful feature in this layout. It works as a guest room, a home office with its own entrance feel, or a room for an older child or a parent, which is the kind of flexibility you rarely get in a downtown condo apartment.

A ten-unit, self-managed corporation

condos.ca lists the corporation as self-managed. That usually means the owners themselves, through the board, hire contractors, collect fees and run the reserve fund, sometimes with outside bookkeeping. It can keep costs down and decisions quick, but it depends heavily on a few engaged volunteers.

condos.ca’s amenity list for this building includes items like a concierge, gym and guest suites that I could not confirm for a ten-unit townhouse corporation. Treat those as unverified and ask the seller exactly what shared facilities exist.

In a corporation this small, one owner’s renovation, a roof leak or a garage repair is everyone’s business. Read the minutes and talk to the board before you buy, not after.

Bundled utilities make this especially important. Because heat, hydro and cooling are paid from the common budget, a jump in energy prices or an ageing boiler shows up in everyone’s fee. Ask for the last three years of actual operating costs, not just the budget, and ask whether units are individually metered at all.

Old Brewery Lane day to day

The lane runs off River Street just north of Queen Street East. Your next-door neighbour is The Vinegar Lofts, another brick industrial conversion, and the Toronto Humane Society is beside that. Being on a lane rather than a main road keeps things calmer than the Queen and River corner suggests.

Corktown and the Distillery District are to the south, Riverside and Leslieville are over the bridge to the east, and the Regent Park revitalization continues to the north. A listing also describes a ravine lot, which points to the green edge of the Don Valley to the east. The automatic panel on this page covers transit, schools and walkability.

Pricing ten townhouses with everything in the fee

condos.ca puts the building average at about $680 per square foot, well below the roughly $1,109 at The Vinegar Lofts next door. Part of that gap is format: larger multi-level townhouses usually trade at a lower per-square-foot figure than compact lofts, and three storeys of stairs narrows the buyer pool.

The fee inclusions are the strongest I have seen on a building this small: common elements, heat, hydro, air conditioning, building insurance, water and parking are all listed. When you compare monthly cost with a freehold townhouse or another condo nearby, remember you would be paying hydro, heating and cooling on your own there.

Nothing was listed at the time of writing, and with ten units, resales are infrequent. I price units here against the corporation’s own history and against loft townhouses and semis in Corktown and Riverside. For aggregate recent trades, see my building sold report.

Building specifications

Amenities at The Malthouse Loft Towns

The real amenities here are private: your own rooftop terrace, a parking space and a locker. Do not buy expecting shared facilities, and confirm any condos.ca-listed amenity in person. A roof terrace of your own is worth more day to day than a shared party room you would book twice a year, and it is the feature I would weigh most when choosing between units.

Jatin’s honest take on The Malthouse Loft Towns

The Malthouse Loft Towns — 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.