St. Lawrence Market Lofts, 81A Front St E: A Brick Warehouse on Front

St. Lawrence Market Lofts is for the buyer who wants to do the weekly shop on foot at one of the best food markets in the country. It is a 19th-century brick warehouse on Front Street East, converted in 2003 into about 53 lofts with exposed brick, beams and tall ceilings. It is small, old and short on parking, and those three facts decide whether it is right for you. I’m Jatin Dua, RE/MAX Quantum Realty.

A real warehouse on Toronto’s oldest commercial street

This is a genuine hard loft. The building is a pre-Confederation warehouse in a row of 1860s brick buildings on the south side of Front Street East, and when it went up, the Lake Ontario shoreline sat much closer to this street than it does today. That history is why the street feels the way it does: low, brick and built for trade.

Inside, the conversion kept the raw parts: exposed brick walls, wood beams and visible ductwork. Ceiling heights are reported at roughly 10 to 16 feet depending on the suite and floor, and some plans use that height for a second level. The largest suites are about 1,300 sq ft, laid out as open plans over two levels.

The ground floor is retail, with a Starbucks at street level and an LCBO on the same stretch. That is convenient, but it also means a busy sidewalk below your windows and morning deliveries on Front Street.

Small building, short height, and a different set of trade-offs

Sources disagree on the basic size. Condos.ca lists three storeys and 53 suites, while another loft-specialist listing gives four storeys and 54 lofts. The difference likely comes down to how the upper level and a lower suite are counted, but confirm the number on the status certificate, because it tells you how many owners share each repair bill.

A building this small has no tower views and no amenity floor. Condos.ca lists an elevator, security and a parking garage, and notes that pets are allowed, but nothing like a gym or party room. In exchange you get a quiet lobby, neighbours you will actually know, and old-growth timber overhead.

The suites vary a lot. Some face Front Street and the market, others face the rear. Because the windows are set into old masonry walls, light depends heavily on which wall your suite sits against, so visit in daylight before you decide.

Hydro is in the fee, which changes the comparison

The fee inclusions here are unusually broad. Condos.ca lists common elements, heat, air conditioning, hydro, building insurance and water. Very few downtown buildings include hydro, and in an old brick building with high ceilings, heating and cooling a large volume of air is not cheap.

That is why the fee looks high. One loft-specialist source says fees here run well above the city average and that this has put some buyers off. Before you dismiss it, add your own hydro, heat and cooling bills to the fee of the building you are comparing it against, and see how much of the gap is left.

The other thing to know is that bundled utilities are shared. If the building uses more energy, everyone’s fee goes up, whatever their own usage. Ask how the utility line in the budget has moved over the last three years.

Parking is the real constraint

Condos.ca lists a parking garage, but other sources describe parking here as limited, and at least one featured suite was sold without a space. Visitor street parking on Front Street is scarce. If you need a car, confirm in the listing and on the status certificate that a space is deeded or assigned to the suite you are buying.

For most people who buy here, that is a smaller issue than it sounds. The market is a few doors away, the Financial District is walkable, and the theatres and restaurants along Front Street and King Street East are close. This is a building for people who have mostly given up the car, and the automatic panel on this page shows the transit options nearby.

The area around you keeps changing too, with new towers going up to the south and east of the old core. A low-rise building does not compete with any of that for views, but construction noise and lane closures can be part of life on this stretch for years at a time, so ask the seller what the last few years have been like and check the City of Toronto development applications map for nearby sites.

What St. Lawrence Market Lofts costs

Condos.ca puts the building average at about $999 per square foot. That is high for a low-rise conversion, and it reflects the scarcity of hard lofts this close to the market. There are only about 53 of them, and they rarely come up.

When I checked, nothing was listed for sale. One source counts only a handful of sales a year since 2020, between one and five annually, and reports that average sale prices peaked in 2021 and have eased since. With volumes that low, a single sale moves the average a lot, so treat any building-level number as a rough guide.

Because hydro, heat and cooling are in the fee, compare total monthly cost rather than fee alone. If you want a fair value for a specific suite, I can pull the recent sales and adjust for floor, exposure, parking and layout through my building sold report.

Building specifications

Amenities at St. Lawrence Market Lofts

There are no lifestyle amenities in the usual sense. Your amenity is the street: St. Lawrence Market a few doors away, the shops and galleries along Front Street, and the parks to the east.

Jatin’s honest take on St. Lawrence Market Lofts

St. Lawrence Market Lofts — 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.