Lago at the Waterfront, 56 Annie Craig Dr: 50 Storeys, Parking in the Fee

Lago at the Waterfront is the tower I point to when a buyer wants to be as close to the lake as Humber Bay Shores allows without paying penthouse money. It is a 50-storey Mattamy building from 2017, it has a real indoor pool, and its fee includes parking, which is less common on this strip than people assume. It is also one of the busier resale buildings in the neighbourhood, and that matters for how you buy. I’m Jatin Dua, RE/MAX Quantum Realty.

The tower with the black and white balconies

You can pick Lago out of the Humber Bay skyline because of its balconies. Graziani + Corazza stacked the tower in shifting four-storey bands of light and dark, with alternating black and white glass on the balconies, and set it on a podium clad in slate-coloured brick. It reads as one building rather than another glass column.

When it went up it was the tallest tower in the area at 50 storeys, until the neighbouring Eau du Soleil overtook it. It shares the site with Riva del Lago, a 16-storey sister building by the same team, and together the two added several hundred suites to the waterfront. The development team is usually described as Mattamy and Biddington, though some listings also name the Milborne Group, so do not be surprised if you see different names on paperwork.

An indoor pool, on the second floor

Lago’s amenities sit mostly on the second floor in a space branded the Lago Club. It includes a fitness centre and yoga studio, a party room, guest suites, an indoor pool, a hot tub and dry saunas. Tanner Hill did the interiors, and the ground floor has a concierge desk in the lobby.

An indoor pool matters in this neighbourhood because not every tower nearby has one. Key West up Park Lawn, for example, has a gym and lounges but no pool. If swimming is part of your week, Lago is on a short list with buildings like South Beach and Beyond the Sea.

The trade-off is the usual one. Pools are expensive to run and eventually to refurbish, and that cost sits in your fee and your reserve fund. A 2017 building is not near a major pool replacement yet, but you should still see the line in the reserve fund study.

Layouts: small one-bedrooms to large corner suites

The size range is wide, from about 367 sq ft at the small end to about 1,701 sq ft. Most of what trades are one-bedrooms, one-plus-dens and two-bedrooms in the 500 to 800 sq ft range, which is typical of a tower sold to investors as well as end users in the mid-2010s.

The units under 500 sq ft are the ones I am most careful with. They are cheap to get into and easy to rent, but they compete with a lot of similar product in Humber Bay Shores, and resale can be slow when the market softens. The two-bedroom-plus-den and larger corner plans are scarcer and appeal to end users who want to stay, which is the buyer pool that holds value.

Most suites look at the lake, the downtown skyline or south over the Humber Bay parks. Higher floors are the obvious premium, but in a 50-storey tower even mid-level suites can have real views. Ask which direction the next development will block before you pay for a view.

Living at the end of Annie Craig

Annie Craig Drive is close to the water at the east end of Humber Bay Shores. Humber Bay Park and the waterfront trail are right there, and that is the reason people buy here. The ground-floor retail along Marine Parade Drive covers coffee and a quick dinner, but bigger errands generally mean a short drive.

The other daily reality is density. Humber Bay Shores packed a lot of towers onto a narrow strip between the lake and the Gardiner, and the roads in and out at Park Lawn and Lake Shore get congested at rush hour. Buyers who commute by car should drive the route at 8 a.m. before they commit, not on a quiet Sunday afternoon.

The neighbourhood is also about to change. Across Park Lawn, the former Christie cookie factory site at 2150 Lake Shore Boulevard West has a long-term master plan for about fifteen towers, a new GO station, parks and space for schools and community facilities, built in phases over many years. That should improve transit and services, at the cost of a lot of construction on Park Lawn.

Price per foot and the fee question

Condos.ca puts the building average at about $938 per sq ft, which is towards the top of the Humber Bay Shores range and reflects the age of the tower and its location near the water. Fees across active listings average about $0.94 per sq ft, and the inclusion list is strong: heat, air conditioning, water and parking are all covered. If you are comparing with a building where parking is billed separately and heat is on your own meter, add those back before you call Lago expensive.

There are eight suites for sale right now. Asks for one-bedrooms and one-plus-dens run from about $440,000 to $590,000, two-bedrooms from about $650,000 to $706,000, and the larger two-plus-den plans around $1 million. With that much inventory you have choice, and you also have negotiating room. Recent sold medians are in the data panel on this page, and I would always check them against the asking range before making an offer.

Building specifications

Amenities at Lago at the Waterfront

The Lago Club is compact rather than sprawling, but it covers the things people actually use: a pool, a hot tub, saunas and a decent gym. Guest suites are a real help in a neighbourhood where most visitors are driving in.

Jatin’s honest take on Lago at the Waterfront

Lago at the Waterfront — frequently asked questions

Looking at Humber Bay Shores, Mimico, the Queensway and central Etobicoke more broadly? Start with my Toronto community guide — the neighbourhoods, what each pocket is like, and how they compare.