Residences of Yorkville Plaza, 155 Yorkville Ave: The Old Four Seasons

For more than four decades this tower was the Four Seasons Hotel, the building that helped turn Yorkville from a coffee-house village into Toronto’s luxury district. Today it is a 31-storey condominium full of compact suites, with new glass on the outside and a 1970 concrete frame underneath. That mix of a famous address, small floor plans and an old structure is exactly what you need to understand before you buy. I’m Jatin Dua, RE/MAX Quantum Realty.

A 1970 hotel with a new skin

The Four Seasons opened here in 1970, and when the hotel moved to its new tower next door, Camrost-Felcorp took on the old building. Rather than demolish it, the developer kept the tower’s shape and dimensions and rebuilt it as residences. WZMH Architects, who designed the original hotel, also handled the redesign.

The most visible change is at street level. The heavy concrete base was replaced with a two-storey glass podium holding a large retail space along Yorkville Avenue and Avenue Road. Above it, the tower was reclad with patterned enamelled glass, some opaque and some clear, which makes the building look noticeably different in daylight and at night.

This matters for a buyer in a practical way. The glass, the podium and the suite finishes date from the conversion in the mid-2010s, but the structure is more than 55 years old. That is not a problem in itself, since concrete frames last a very long time, but it is a different starting point from a tower built from scratch in 2017.

Which building systems were fully replaced and which were refurbished is the question I would want answered in writing. The public reporting on the conversion describes the new podium and cladding in detail but says little about what happened behind the walls, so the reserve fund study and the original disclosure documents are where you will find it.

Small suites, named after cities

The conversion was marketed around pied-à-terre, one-bedroom and two-bedroom suites, priced from the mid-$300,000s at launch. The floor plans were grouped into an “International Collection” with names like Manhattan, Paris, Milan and London, and buyers chose between a classic and a contemporary interior palette. Kitchens have integrated appliances to save space.

Recorded suite sizes run from about 385 square feet to roughly 4,579 square feet, but the large end is the exception. Most of what comes up for sale is under 500 square feet, and a one-bedroom-plus-den in the 600s is a relatively large suite in this building. Every active listing I reviewed was a studio, a one-bedroom or a one-plus-den.

A hotel floor plate was designed for rooms off a central corridor, and that shapes the layouts. Before you commit, look at the actual depth of the suite, where the windows fall and whether the den is a usable room or a nook. Two suites with the same square footage can feel very different here.

Living at Avenue Road and Yorkville Avenue

You are at the western gateway to Yorkville. The Royal Ontario Museum, the Bloor Street luxury strip and the University of Toronto are all a short walk away, and the new Four Seasons Hotel sits on the neighbouring site. For a weekday pied-à-terre or a student whose parents want a staffed building, this is about as central as Toronto gets.

The same corner is busy. Avenue Road is a major north-south route and Yorkville Avenue fills up on weekends and during the film festival. Ask which way a suite faces; an upper-floor unit looking north or west lives very differently from a lower one over the intersection.

The building sits beside a second Camrost-Felcorp condominium, Yorkville Plaza Condos at 188 Cumberland Street, a newer tower registered in 2020. The two are separate corporations with their own budgets and reserve funds, so make sure the documents you review belong to TSCC-2586.

The data panel on this page covers transit, Walk Score, schools and nearby food and parks. What it cannot tell you is how the corner feels at 11 p.m. on a Saturday, so visit then as well as on a quiet weekday morning.

What you pay, and what the fees cover

The building averages about $983 per square foot. Among the Yorkville and Annex towers I have reviewed nearby, that sits below The Florian (about $1,259) and Museum House (about $1,132), and close to The Yorkville at 32 Davenport (about $970). Small suites usually carry a higher price per square foot than large ones, so that average flatters the building less than it seems.

At the time of writing, seven suites were for sale. Studios and one-bedrooms under 500 square feet were asking between about $369,900 and $500,000, and one-plus-dens in the 600s were asking in the high $500,000s. Fees on those listings ran from roughly $515 to $820 a month, which works out to about $1.10 to $1.30 per square foot or more on the smallest suites.

That is a high fee per square foot, but it includes air conditioning, heat, water, building insurance and common elements. Parking is not listed as included, so if you need a space, confirm whether the suite comes with one and what it costs. My building sold report shows what has actually closed.

Building specifications

Amenities at The Residences of Yorkville Plaza

The amenity list is solid rather than spectacular: staffed security, a gym, a media room, a games room and guest suites. In a building of this many small suites, the guest suites and party room tend to be booked well ahead, so ask how far in advance residents reserve them.

Jatin’s honest take on The Residences of Yorkville Plaza

The Residences of Yorkville Plaza — 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.