Button Factory Lofts, 200 Clinton St: 13 Big Brick-and-Beam Lofts

Button Factory Lofts is what I show buyers who say they want a house but keep falling for lofts. It has only 13 suites inside a century-old red brick factory on a quiet stretch of Clinton Street, and most of them are bigger than the semi-detached houses around it. Rare buildings like this are wonderful to own and hard to price, and I will walk you through both. I’m Jatin Dua, RE/MAX Quantum Realty.

A garment building with a legend attached

The building is a red brick industrial block about a century old. Despite the name, it was not a button plant. The Globe and Mail describes it as a workplace for garment-trade workers who sewed uniforms, and the name comes from a neighbourhood story that children visiting their parents were paid a penny for every button they picked up off the floor.

By the early 1990s the factories had left this part of the city, and the site was rezoned for residential use in 1993. The condominium was registered in February 1996. According to the Globe, the space was divided into zones and sold unfinished so buyers could build out their own lofts, which is the single most important fact about this building for anyone shopping here.

That approach explains why no two suites feel alike. Owners chose their own layouts, stairs and finishes, so you are really buying a custom home that happens to share a roof, a corporation and a front door with twelve others.

Big volumes, heavy timber and outdoor space for every suite

Suites here start around 1,500 sq ft and run to nearly 2,500 sq ft, which puts the smallest loft above most two-bedroom condos downtown. Several are multi-level. Ceilings are generally 10 to 12 feet, and some of the multi-level lofts open up to about 24 feet over the living room.

The original fir posts and beams and the wood plank ceilings are still in place, and much of the brick is exposed. The old wooden factory door still marks the front of the building, which tells you the conversion kept its character rather than sanding it away.

The detail that separates this building from most loft conversions is outdoor space. Every suite is described as having a terrace or garden, and at least one loft featured in the press combined a front garden, a second-floor deck and a roof deck. In a 13-unit building that is a genuine house-like feature, and it is why owners here tend to stay a long time.

Expect the quirks that come with timber-frame lofts. Sound travels further through wood floors and beams than through a concrete slab, open stairs and mezzanines mean bedrooms are rarely fully enclosed, and older brick walls can be cooler in winter. None of this is a defect, but walk the suite at different times of day and ask the owner how it lives.

Living on Clinton Street

Clinton is a residential street of Victorian and Edwardian houses, so the building sits in a quiet pocket at night. You walk south to College Street for Little Italy’s restaurants and patios, and north to Harbord for cafés and the shops toward Bloor. Sources disagree on the label, with one calling it the Annex and the city’s data calling it Palmerston-Little Italy, which tells you how close it sits to both.

The trade-off for a building this small is that there is no lobby, no concierge and no gym. Condos.ca lists BBQs as permitted, a security system and visitor parking, and that is essentially the amenity package. You are buying space and setting, not services.

Parking deserves its own question. Visitor parking is listed, and at least one suite has been marketed with a space by its kitchen door, but I could not confirm how many suites have parking. Ask for the parking schedule in the declaration before you assume one comes with the loft you like.

How to think about price at 200 Clinton

Condos.ca puts the building average around $985 per square foot. That number needs care. With only 13 suites and large custom layouts, a single sale can move the average a long way, and the finishes inside each loft vary far more than they would in a tower.

There were no active listings in the building when I wrote this, which is normal here. Owners hold for years, so you may wait months for a suite to come up. When one does, I compare it with large hard lofts in nearby conversions and with semi-detached houses on Clinton and the surrounding streets, because those are the real alternatives for this buyer.

Expect a thin set of comparables. In a building this size there may be only a handful of resales in a typical year, and sometimes none. I would rather show you three nearby loft sales and two house sales than lean on one number from inside the building.

On fees, the listed inclusions are narrow: common elements, building insurance and water. Heat and hydro are not listed as included, so budget for your own utilities on a loft that can top 2,000 sq ft with high ceilings. Ask the seller for a year of heating bills. If you want the aggregate sale history, my building sold report is the place to start.

Building specifications

Amenities at Button Factory Lofts

There is almost nothing here in the way of shared facilities, and for this building that is a feature. With few common areas to staff and heat, the corporation’s job is mostly the roof, the brick, the structure and the shared systems.

Jatin’s honest take on Button Factory Lofts

Button Factory Lofts — frequently asked questions

Looking at Queen West, Trinity-Bellwoods, Kensington and Little Italy more broadly? Start with my Toronto community guide — the neighbourhoods, what each pocket is like, and how they compare.