Royal Towns, 250-256 Royal York Rd: Mimico Stacked Towns, Low Fees

Royal Towns is where I send Mimico buyers who care most about the monthly number. Fees here run around 40 cents a square foot with parking included, which is well below what most towers in south Etobicoke charge. The trade-off is a site squeezed between Royal York Road and a working rail and industrial area, and the design shows it. I’m Jatin Dua, RE/MAX Quantum Realty.

Six blocks on a tight Mimico site

Before this was built, the site was a mix of three detached houses, a vacant commercial building on Royal York Road and two empty lots on Drummond Street, about 0.72 hectares in total. Icon Royal York Limited applied in 2013 to rezone it from commercial to residential for stacked townhouses. The City’s preliminary report described the plan at that stage: 111 stacked units in six blocks, four storeys with the top level given over to rooftop terraces, stairs and mechanical rooms.

The finished corporation has 104 suites, according to condos.ca, so the plan was trimmed during approvals. That is common, and it is why I quote the 2013 report as a description of the design intent, not the final count.

The surroundings explain a lot. The City’s report lists Mimico Arena, industrial uses on Drummond and Harold Streets, and a rail yard holding the VIA Rail Toronto Maintenance Centre and GO Transit’s Willowbrook maintenance facility to the west, with the rail corridor and Mimico GO station area to the north. A listed heritage building sits next door at 12 Drummond Street.

Designed as its own sound wall

The most unusual thing about this site plan is how it deals with its neighbours. In the 2013 proposal, the blocks on the outside edge of the site were designed to act as a noise barrier against the employment uses next door, with windowless rear walls about nine metres high, and a brick and glass acoustic wall linking them. The suites face inward, toward walkways and a small landscaped courtyard.

In practice, that means where a suite sits in the complex matters a great deal. An inner suite facing the courtyard will feel quite different from one on the perimeter. If you are sensitive to noise, visit on a weekday when the rail yard and industrial neighbours are busy, and again in the evening.

I could not confirm the final architect from public sources. If design pedigree matters to you, ask the listing agent or check the original sales materials.

Three kinds of suite in one block

The 2013 plan stacked three suite types in each block: a partially below-grade unit, a ground-floor unit and a two-level upper unit, with some blocks adding back-to-back upper units entered from the ground. Outdoor space was a balcony or terrace, with some terraces on the roof and others sunken below grade. The proposed mix was mostly two-bedrooms, with some one-bedrooms and a handful of three-bedrooms.

Condos.ca now puts suites at about 525 to 1,589 square feet. The four listings for sale when I checked were two one-bedrooms in the 500 to 599 square foot band and two two-bedrooms. The partially below-grade suites are usually the cheapest way in, and they are also the ones where I want to see light levels, ceiling height and the drainage around the sunken terrace in person.

Upper suites mean stairs, with no elevator, and you share walls and a floor or ceiling with neighbours. Ask about sound between units and check the terrace membrane condition on any rooftop suite.

Parking underground, Mimico Village to the south

The plan put parking in a one-level underground garage reached by a private driveway off Drummond Street, with visitor spaces along the driveway and bike parking on site. Parking is listed as included in the fee here, which is worth real money on this stretch of Royal York.

Day to day, you are a short walk north of Mimico Village, with a No Frills just south of the site, and the lake and Mimico’s waterfront parks farther south. You are also close to the GO line, which is the main reason commuters look here. The transit, school and walkability figures for this address are in the data panel on this page.

Low fees, honest prices

Condos.ca puts the average here at about $664 per square foot. That is well below what the Humber Bay Shores towers trade at, and roughly in line with other stacked-town communities in south Etobicoke such as Minto Longbranch.

When I checked, four suites were listed for sale, asking from about $469,000 for the one-bedrooms to about $779,000 for the two-bedrooms. Monthly fees across those listings ran from roughly $183 to $538, or about $0.41 per square foot.

That fee is the headline. It includes common elements, building insurance and parking, according to condos.ca, but not utilities. In a stacked-town complex, you pay your own hydro and usually your own heating and water, so add those back before comparing with a tower where heat and water are bundled. Even then, the total is usually lower here.

The one-bedrooms are the part of this building I find most interesting for value. A stacked one-bedroom here costs about what a smaller tower one-bedroom costs nearby, but it comes with its own entrance, outdoor space and a very low fee. The catch is that some of the smaller suites may be the partially below-grade ones, so compare light and layout, not just the price and the square footage.

Building specifications

Amenities at Royal Towns

There is no gym, party room or concierge, which is why the fee is so low. You get visitor parking, bike storage and permission to barbecue on your own terrace, plus the shared courtyard and walkways. The 2013 plan sized that courtyard at about 244 square metres, so think of it as a garden to walk through, not a park.

Jatin’s honest take on Royal Towns

Royal Towns — 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.