Nevis, 80 & 88 Palace Pier Crt: Waterfront Without the 40-Storey Tower

Nevis is the building I show people who want to live at the water in Humber Bay Shores but do not want a 40-storey tower. It has 161 suites on Palace Pier Court, at the end of the Shores closest to the Humber River, and its fee covers both heat and air conditioning. That fee is the first thing to understand before you look at a single suite here. I’m Jatin Dua, RE/MAX Quantum Realty.

A mid-size building on a famous piece of shoreline

Palace Pier Court takes its name from the Palace Pier, a dance hall that opened on this shore in 1941 and burned down in 1963. A plaque on the Waterfront Trail marks the spot. The two towers that later took the name are much bigger than Nevis: Palace Pier, finished in 1978 at 46 storeys, and Palace Place, finished in 1991.

Nevis arrived in 2003 and is a different kind of building. At 15 storeys and 161 suites, it has roughly the population of one or two floors of a large Shores tower. Fewer people share each elevator, the lobby staff can learn faces, and an owners’ meeting is a room of people rather than an auditorium.

Shiu Pong Group is listed as the developer. I found very little published about its other Toronto projects, so I would not buy on the developer’s reputation either way. Judge this building on its own records: the reserve fund study, the board minutes and twenty-plus years of resale history.

Two addresses, one corporation

Nevis carries two street numbers, 80 and 88 Palace Pier Court, under a single corporation, TSCC-1528. Buyers often assume they are identical. Find out which address a suite is in before you compare it with another, because the entrance, the views and the elevator you use every day can all differ.

One detail worth noticing: penthouse suites at 80 Palace Pier Court have been numbered on the fifth level, which suggests that part of the property is far lower than the 15-storey figure for the corporation. I could not confirm the exact massing from a published source, so walk the site and ask the concierge how the two addresses connect.

View is the biggest price driver on this street. A suite that looks over the lake, the Humber mouth or the downtown skyline is a different product from one that faces the Gardiner side. Ask for the exposure in writing and visit at the time of day you would actually be home.

Suites for first-time buyers and downsizers alike

Condos.ca records suites from about 526 to 1,705 square feet, and current listings run from one-bedrooms to three-bedrooms. That is a wider spread than most Humber Bay Shores towers, which lean heavily toward one-bedroom and one-plus-den plans.

The larger two- and three-bedroom suites are why downsizers look here. A 1,500-square-foot suite with a lake view in a 161-unit building is hard to find, and it gives you room for a proper dining table and a guest room. Compact one-bedrooms bring in first-time buyers and investors, so the owner mix is not one type.

I could not verify ceiling heights or a full list of floor plans from a reliable source. Ask for the plan of the suite you are seeing, and measure during the visit. Also confirm whether parking and a locker come with the suite; the fee inclusions condos.ca lists do not mention parking.

What the fee buys

Across the suites listed for sale when I wrote this, condos.ca puts fees at about $1.19 per square foot. That will look expensive next to a newer Shores tower, and on its own it is. But the fee here includes heat, air conditioning and water as well as insurance and common elements.

In most buildings finished after about 2010, heating and cooling are metered to each suite and billed separately, so the posted fee leaves out a real summer and winter cost. At Nevis you trade a higher fee for a flatter, more predictable monthly bill. Hydro is not on the inclusion list, so ask what remains on your own account.

The other side of an all-in fee is that the corporation carries the cost of the central heating and cooling plant. In a building of this age, that equipment is part of what the reserve fund has to plan for, and it is a fair question to ask what has already been replaced.

Price per square foot and what is listed now

Condos.ca puts the building average at about $678 per square foot. Because the suite mix includes many large plans, the per-square-foot number understates how much total money some of these suites cost, and it overstates value for the small one-bedrooms, which usually carry a higher rate.

When I wrote this there were six suites for sale and two for rent. Asking prices across the six ran from about $488,500 to $1,149,000, and the five two-bedroom listings alone ranged from $624,000 to $1,149,000. That gap is mostly size and view, which is why I compare suites here only with the same exposure and a similar floor area.

Monthly fees on those listings ran from about $800 to about $1,630. Before you decide a fee is too high, add a typical heating and cooling bill back onto the building you are comparing it with. For recorded sale figures, see the data panel on this page or ask me for a building sold report.

Building specifications

Amenities at Nevis

The amenities are about hosting and convenience more than fitness: a staffed concierge, a rooftop deck, a party room, a meeting room and guest suites for visiting family. The published list I saw was incomplete, so if you need a gym or a pool, confirm what the building actually has before you make an offer.

Jatin’s honest take on Nevis

Nevis — 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.