Phoebe on Queen, 18 Beverley St: Three Buildings Around a Private Garden

Phoebe on Queen is the building I suggest when a buyer wants to live a block from Queen West but cannot stand the idea of a glass tower. It is three buildings, a corner mid-rise on Beverley, a smaller block on Soho and a row of townhouses on Phoebe Street, wrapped around one gated garden that most people walking past never see. It is more than 20 years old, it is not cheap per square foot, and for the right buyer it is still one of the best-planned complexes in this part of downtown. I’m Jatin Dua, RE/MAX Quantum Realty.

Three buildings, one corporation, one garden

The first thing to understand is that Phoebe on Queen is not one building. 18 Beverley is the main mid-rise, with a rounded corner tower and a lower section running north along Beverley. 11 Soho is a smaller block of about 38 suites on the Soho Street side. 25 Soho is a row of multi-level townhouses facing Phoebe Street. All three share one condominium corporation, TSCC-1551, and one budget.

What ties them together is the courtyard. The three buildings enclose a gated garden with private patios at its edges and a fountain that steps water down between levels. The building’s own website calls it the largest private green enclosure in downtown Toronto. I cannot verify that claim, and I would not repeat it to a buyer as fact, but having walked a lot of downtown buildings, I can tell you an inner garden on this scale is rare.

For daily life, the garden matters more than it sounds. Suites that face the courtyard are insulated from Queen Street and from the traffic on Beverley. Suites that face the street get the city. Before you fall for a floor plan, ask which way it faces, because the same layout lives very differently on the two sides.

Designed to look like it was always there

Phoebe on Queen was designed to fit the older streets around it rather than stand out from them. The Beverley corner uses custom round-moulded brick, V-shaped bay windows and decorative railings and cornices, a nod to the older houses facing Grange Park. The Phoebe Street townhouses are buff brick with zinc mansard roofs and roof terraces. The Soho building has brick and steel arches over the window bays, floor-to-ceiling glass and 9-foot ceilings.

That kind of masonry ages well, and it is one reason this complex still reads as a good address two decades on, when many glass buildings from the same period look tired. The trade-off is that brick, cornices and zinc roofs are more expensive to repair than a curtain wall. Ask what the reserve fund study says about the masonry and the roofs specifically.

I could not confirm the developer or the architect from a source I trust, and condos.ca does not list a developer. If that matters to you, the original disclosure documents and the declaration will name them.

Who lives where: suites, townhouses and the size range

The size range here is unusually wide. Condos.ca puts suites at about 450 to 3,503 sq ft, so this complex holds everything from a compact one-bedroom to a large multi-level townhouse. That matters for resale: there is a buyer pool for small suites among students and young professionals working downtown, and a separate, smaller pool of families and downsizers for the townhouses.

The townhouses are the part of Phoebe on Queen that most buyers overlook. You get a front door on a quiet street, roof terraces and a house-like plan, while still sharing a concierge, gym and courtyard. For someone moving down from a semi in the west end who wants to stay walkable to Queen West, that is a very hard combination to find.

Service elevators at Beverley and Soho must be booked ahead, and the building’s rules say they cannot be booked on Sundays or statutory holidays, with fees charged. If you are planning a move or a renovation, build that into the timeline.

Living a block from Queen, Kensington and the AGO

The daily reality here is that you are between several neighbourhoods at once. Queen West is at the top of the street, Grange Park and the Art Gallery of Ontario are a short walk away, and Kensington Market and Chinatown are close enough for a weekday grocery run. The Entertainment District and the Financial District are both reachable on foot for most people.

Soho and Phoebe are small, quiet side streets, which is the point. You get the Queen Street energy without living on top of it. The transit, school and walkability details are in the data panel on this page, so I will not repeat them here.

One thing I always check in a pocket like this is what could be built next door. Before you buy, look up nearby development applications on the City’s map and ask management whether anything proposed would affect the view from your particular suite.

What Phoebe on Queen costs

Condos.ca puts the building average at about $879 per square foot. Treat that number with care in a complex this varied: it blends small one-bedrooms with townhouses over 3,000 sq ft, and large suites almost always trade for less per square foot than small ones. Compare a suite against similar sizes inside the complex, not against the average.

When I checked, two suites were listed for sale, asking $565,000 to $1,275,000, with monthly fees of about $774 to $1,031. Nothing was listed for lease at the time.

Fees here include heat, water, building insurance and parking as well as common elements, which is more than most newer downtown buildings include. When you compare fees with a tower nearby, add back the heating bill and the parking charge to the other building before deciding which one is more expensive. Electricity is supplied through a sub-metering provider, so hydro is your own bill. If you want to see what similar suites actually traded for, I can pull it through my building sold report.

Building specifications

Amenities at Phoebe on Queen

The amenity list is short and practical: a gym, a party room that opens onto the courtyard and the barbecues, two guest suites for visiting family, and concierge desks at both Beverley and Soho. The real amenity is the garden, and there is no pool to fund, which helps keep long-term costs under control.

Jatin’s honest take on Phoebe on Queen

Phoebe on Queen — 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.