ONE12 St Clair, 112 St Clair Ave W: 20 Big Suites in a Former Office Block

ONE12 St Clair is one of the smallest buildings on the St Clair West condo strip, and one of the most unusual. It was an insurance company office block before Grossman & Vranich turned it into 20 suites in 2007, and the result is a building where the smallest unit is about 1,300 square feet and the largest is over 4,000. If you are downsizing from a house and want to keep the room, this is a short list of one. I’m Jatin Dua, RE/MAX Quantum Realty.

An office building turned into 20 homes

ONE12 started life as an office block for an insurer. condos.ca describes it as the former Mutual Life building, and Toronto Life calls it a former insurance company office block; both point the same way. The developer was the Vranich and Grossman family companies, with construction led by Elias Veisman and interiors by Chapman Design Group.

Sources disagree slightly on who to credit as architect. Toronto Life and the developer’s own materials name Page+Steele, while the UrbanToronto and SkyriseCities project thread is titled with IBI Group. Page+Steele later became part of IBI Group, which likely explains the split, but if the architect matters to you, the original sales material is the record to ask for.

From the street it does not look like an old office anymore. The conversion clad it in a dark finish with silver planter boxes running across the facade, which forum commenters at the time singled out as a fresh take on a plain building. Reusing a commercial structure is also what gives these suites their deep, wide floor plates.

House-sized suites, and very few of them

The suite range at ONE12 starts where most condo buildings top out. condos.ca shows sizes from about 1,314 to 4,031 square feet across 20 units, which works out to only two or three suites per floor. That means fewer neighbours on your floor, quieter corridors and elevator rides where you rarely wait.

The penthouse story tells you a lot about the building. According to Toronto Life, the developer first planned a single 8,000-square-foot penthouse across the top two floors. It did not sell, so it was split into two units of roughly 4,000 square feet each, with 10-foot coffered ceilings and multiple balconies. Note that Toronto Life refers to ninth and tenth floors while condos.ca lists nine storeys; the difference may be how the mechanical or penthouse level is counted.

Because these were office floors, ceiling heights and window lines vary by level. Do not assume one suite’s ceiling height or exposure applies to the next. Ask for the floor plan, measure on site, and check which way the suite faces: the north side looks over midtown and North York rather than downtown, which some buyers prefer and some do not.

What the fee buys, and how the building runs

The fee here includes common elements, heat, building insurance, parking and water. Hydro is not on the list, so budget for it separately, and on a 2,000- or 3,000-square-foot suite with central air it is not a small bill.

Fees in a 20-unit building are heavier per suite than in a tower because the fixed costs of a concierge, an elevator contract, insurance and the reserve fund are shared among very few owners. That is the trade for the privacy. Judge the fee by what it covers and by the health of the reserve fund, not by comparing the monthly number to a 300-unit building down the street.

The building is managed by ICC Property Management according to condos.ca. condos.ca also lists a pet restriction. I could not find the specific rules, so read the declaration and rules in the status certificate before you assume your dog or cat is fine.

St Clair West between Avenue Road and Yonge

This stretch of St Clair West has become a condo corridor in its own right, with converted office buildings and newer towers side by side. Directly across the street, Imperial Plaza at 111 St Clair West is another office-to-condo conversion, on a far larger scale. Comparing the two is the clearest way to see what ONE12 is: 20 suites instead of hundreds, and far less shared amenity space, in exchange for a much more private building.

Day to day you are walking to the shops and restaurants around Yonge and St Clair, and the Deer Park and Forest Hill streets are just north and west. Transit, schools, parks and nearby restaurants are covered in the automatic panel on this page, so I will not repeat them here.

St Clair is a busy arterial with buses and traffic. Suites facing the street will hear it; ask about window glazing and spend some time in the suite at rush hour before you commit.

How suites here are priced

With 20 suites, ONE12 has very few sales in any given year, and condos.ca does not publish a building average price per square foot for it. At the time of writing there was one suite listed for sale and none for rent. One listing is not a market, so I am not going to quote it.

In practice, suites here are priced against other large-format midtown condos, the best boutique buildings in Yorkville and Summerhill, and detached houses that a downsizer might be selling. The comparison that matters most is per square foot after you adjust for what the fee covers. Heat and parking are included here, which is not the case in many newer buildings.

If you are buying or selling, the useful work is pulling every sale here over several years and every comparable large suite nearby. My building sold report is the place to start, and I can walk you through it.

Building specifications

Amenities at ONE12 St Clair

The amenity list is short because the building is small: concierge, a gym, a party room and a meeting room. Most buyers here are not shopping for amenities; they want a staffed lobby, an elevator and a suite big enough that they do not miss a house.

Jatin’s honest take on ONE12 St Clair

ONE12 St Clair — 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.