East Village Leslieville, 1321 Gerrard St E: Stacked Towns With Rooftops

East Village Leslieville is where I send buyers who want their own front door and a private rooftop for less than a Leslieville freehold. It is a 31-suite brick stacked-townhouse complex on Gerrard Street East, designed by George Popper Architect and finished in 2018. The trade-off is the location, which is Gerrard near Greenwood, not Queen and Leslie. I’m Jatin Dua, RE/MAX Quantum Realty.

Stacked townhouses, not a condo building

When East Village launched in 2012, blogTO described it as a three-storey, townhouse-style project of 31 units in brick. The plan is simple: one-bedroom suites on the ground floor, and two-bedroom suites above them that run over the second and third floors. Each suite has its own entrance from outside, so there are no shared corridors and no elevator.

Condos.ca records the complex as a single storey, which reflects how databases classify stacked towns rather than what is on the ground. Walk the suite and count the stairs. In the upper two-storey suites, you will climb from the street to your front door and then again inside, which matters if you are planning to stay into retirement.

The project took a long time to finish. The 2012 launch material targeted occupancy for November 2014, and the corporation did not register until May 2018. Delays like that are common in Toronto, but they are worth knowing about, because the first owners lived through them and the building’s early budgets were set after a long build.

Urban Fabric built at a similar small scale elsewhere in Leslieville. Its nine Leslieville Lofthouses at Colgate and Verral, also designed by George Popper, were finishing construction in 2013. If you want to see how the same team’s work has aged, that is a useful comparison to walk past.

The rooftop terraces and the small-suite layouts

The feature that sells the upper suites is a private rooftop terrace, about 200 square feet according to the launch coverage. That is not a large yard, but it is outdoor space that belongs to you rather than a shared roof deck, and in this price range that is uncommon.

Suites range from about 455 to 1,082 square feet, with ceilings up to about 9 feet 6 inches. The 2012 floor plans drew some criticism: in the smallest one-bedrooms you walked through the bedroom to reach the bathroom, and some kitchens were a single wall of appliances in a narrow part of the suite. The launch coverage noted that buyers could ask the developer to customize a plan, so do not assume every suite matches the original drawings. Ask for the floor plan of the specific suite.

If you work from home, look closely at the one-plus-den plans. A den in a 500-square-foot ground-floor suite is often a nook, not a room with a door.

Parking, lockers and what the fee pays for

At launch, parking was sold separately and only for select suites, with lockers and bicycle lockers also sold as extras. That means most suites probably have no parking. If you need a car, confirm in the status certificate that the suite you are buying has a parking unit or exclusive-use space attached to it.

Condos.ca lists common elements, building insurance and water as covered by the fee. Heat and hydro are on you, which is normal for townhouses where each suite has its own systems. The launch material estimated maintenance at about $0.31 a square foot and noted that the developer kept amenities to a minimum to keep fees low. Ask how far the current fee has moved from that original estimate, and why.

In stacked townhouses, snow clearing, landscaping and the roofs are often the biggest shared costs, and they are split among only 31 owners. Ask what the reserve fund study plans for the roofs and the rooftop terrace membranes, which are the parts most likely to leak.

Gerrard East, near Greenwood

This is Leslieville by marketing more than by map. The complex is on Gerrard just east of Greenwood, north of the Queen Street strip most people picture. The Gerrard India Bazaar is a short walk west, Greenwood Park is close by, and the 506 Carlton streetcar runs along Gerrard. That streetcar is convenient, and it is also noise, so check how the suite you want faces the street.

When blogTO reviewed the project in 2012, the writer’s main concern was that the immediate area was in transition and its future uncertain. Leslieville as a whole has since gentrified and much of its old industrial land is being redeveloped, but this end of Gerrard still feels different from Queen. Walk it at different times of day before you decide. The data panel on this page lists the nearest transit, parks and schools.

Pricing: a small sample in a small complex

There is one suite listed at the time of writing, so I cannot give you a range of asking prices here. In a 31-suite complex, listings are infrequent, so if this format is what you want, it pays to be ready before one comes up.

Condos.ca shows a building average of about $1,627 a square foot. I would not rely on it. With so few sales, one unusual transaction can move the average a long way, and that figure looks high for a stacked townhouse on this part of Gerrard. Use the 12-month sold data in the panel above, and ask me for a full building sold report before you set a price.

The fair comparison is not other condos, but a semi or a freehold row house in the same streets, which will cost far more and come with full maintenance. Here you get a front door and, upstairs, a private roof, with the roofs and grounds handled by the corporation.

Building specifications

Amenities at East Village Leslieville

Condos.ca lists a party room, visitor parking and barbecues, and the launch material mentioned a meeting room. In practice, the amenity here is your own front door and, upstairs, your own roof, which is the point of the format.

Jatin’s honest take on East Village Leslieville

East Village Leslieville — frequently asked questions

Looking at Leslieville, Riverdale, the Beaches, Danforth and Leaside more broadly? Start with my Toronto community guide — the neighbourhoods, what each pocket is like, and how they compare.