The Saint James, 39 Jarvis St: Boutique Condo by St. Lawrence Market

The Saint James is the building I point to when a buyer wants St. Lawrence Market as their grocery store but does not want a 40-storey tower. It is an eight-storey, 103-suite Great Gulf building from 2000 on Jarvis Street, with suites that run much larger than anything being built nearby today. Supply is the catch: there is rarely more than one suite for sale at a time. I’m Jatin Dua, RE/MAX Quantum Realty.

A boutique building in the market district

Most of what has gone up around St. Lawrence Market in the past decade is tall, glassy and full of small suites. The Saint James is the opposite: eight storeys, 103 suites, and a street presence that fits the older brick fabric of lower Jarvis rather than competing with it.

Small buildings behave differently. With about 100 owners, board elections are not anonymous, residents tend to recognise each other in the lobby, and decisions get made faster. A recent listing describes the owner-occupancy rate as high, which matches what I would expect from a building with this size mix and this little rental turnover.

The flip side is that a 103-suite corporation spreads big repairs over fewer owners. A roof, a garage membrane or an elevator modernisation costs roughly the same whether the building has 100 suites or 400, so the reserve fund matters more here than in a tower.

Suite sizes newer buildings do not offer

condos.ca records suites from about 378 to 2,465 square feet. That top end is the story. Upper-floor suites here include two-level layouts, and at least some penthouse-level suites have a private rooftop terrace reached by an internal stair, according to a recent listing.

A Toronto Life feature on the building made the point that you get more space for your money here than in newer stock, and called out a large locker area. For a downsizer coming out of a house, real storage is often the deciding factor, and it is something most 2020s buildings simply do not provide.

Because the size range is so wide, the building average price per square foot hides a lot. A compact one-bedroom and a two-level penthouse with a terrace are different products, and I price them against different comparables.

Retail at grade also helps here. A coffee shop downstairs and the market across the road mean most daily errands do not need a car, which is a real part of the value for anyone who would rather walk than drive downtown.

Jarvis below King, day to day

This is about as close to St. Lawrence Market as you can live. St. Lawrence Hall, the 1850 landmark, and St. James Park with St. James Cathedral behind it are steps away, and the building’s name nods to that cathedral district. Toronto Life noted views of the cathedral from the building.

The old North Market site across Front Street has been redeveloped into a new market and courthouse building, which brings more foot traffic and activity to the south end of Jarvis. Retail at grade has included a coffee shop and other small businesses, according to Toronto Life.

Jarvis is a busy arterial, and King has the streetcar. Suites facing Jarvis get more traffic noise than those facing the back. Transit, walkability and nearby parks are covered in the automatic panel on this page, but the short version is that you can do almost everything on foot, and the Gardiner and the Don Valley Parkway are a few minutes by car.

What a 2000 building means for you

At roughly 26 years old, The Saint James is past the stage where builder defects show up and into the stage where original systems come due. Windows, balcony and terrace membranes, the garage, the roof and in-suite HVAC are the items I look at first.

Some owners have already replaced their in-suite systems, and one recent listing mentions a heat pump. That is worth asking about on every suite you see, because original fan coils or heat pumps from 2000 are near the end of their life and the replacement cost is usually the owner’s, not the corporation’s.

Ask too about building-wide work already done since 2000. A corporation that has already replaced its roof or modernised its elevators has taken that cost off your plate; one that has not is about to ask owners to fund it. The board minutes for the last two years will tell you which of those two buildings you are buying into.

Price per square foot, fees and supply

condos.ca puts the building average at about $705 per square foot. For context, the same source shows the new St. Lawrence Condominiums at 158 Front Street East at about $894 and King George Square at 168 King Street East at about $681. The Saint James sits closer to the older resale stock than to the new towers, even though its suites are larger and its location is at least as good.

Fees here look high in dollars because the suites are large, and they cover more than most. condos.ca lists common elements, heat, building insurance and water as included, and a recent listing also includes parking in the fee. Hydro is on you. Confirm the exact inclusions in the status certificate, especially parking, because that changes the comparison with newer buildings where parking is a separate charge.

At the time of writing there was one suite for sale and none for rent. One listing is not a market, so I will not quote it here. If you want to know what suites like yours have actually sold for, ask me for the building sold report at /building-sold-report/.

Building specifications

Amenities at The Saint James

The amenity package is modest: concierge, a rooftop garden with city views, a gym and a party room, with no pool. That keeps fees from carrying an expensive pool, and the rooftop is the space owners actually use in summer.

Jatin’s honest take on The Saint James

The Saint James — 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.