Jade Condominiums, 399 Spring Garden Ave: Seven Storeys, Fee Covers a Lot

Jade Condominiums is what I show buyers who like Willowdale East but do not want to live in a 40-storey tower. It is seven storeys and 172 suites on Spring Garden Avenue, a street that was single-family houses until this building and its neighbour went up, and the fee covers heat, cooling and parking. The fee per square foot looks high on paper, and I want to explain why that is only half the story. I’m Jatin Dua, RE/MAX Quantum Realty.

A mid-rise on a street of houses

Most of the condo supply in this part of North York is tall, and it is on or near Yonge. Jade is the opposite. UrbanToronto reported when it topped off in April 2013 that the site had been single-family homes, and the building was kept to seven storeys, which is closer in scale to the houses around it than to the towers to the west.

Kirkor Architects designed it, with Tomas Pearce Interior Design on the amenity spaces. The exterior is glass and precast panels, with floor-to-ceiling windows and inset balconies, and the landscaping at grade was a big part of the original pitch. In person it reads as a calm, low building rather than a statement.

One small thing that confuses people: the SkyriseCities database files the project under 403 Spring Garden Avenue, while condos.ca and the corporation records use 399. If you are searching listings or ordering documents, check both numbers.

Who built it, and the building next door

Phantom Developments built Jade, and UrbanToronto’s coverage links it to Milborne Group, the sales and marketing firm that worked on it. Phantom is a smaller GTA developer, not a household name like Tridel, so the building’s reputation rests more on its own track record since 2014 than on a brand.

Jade has a near twin on the same block. Twenty One Clairtrell, at the corner, is also seven storeys, also designed by Kirkor, and was finished a year earlier by Rockport Group. The two are separate corporations with separate fees and separate reserve funds, so compare them line by line rather than assuming they are the same.

Having two boutique mid-rises side by side is useful for a buyer. It gives you a second set of comparables on the same street, which is rare for a building of this size.

Suites and layouts

Condos.ca gives a suite range of about 494 to 1,712 square feet. That top end is large for a seven-storey building and points to a handful of bigger suites on the upper floors, while the bulk of the building is one-bedroom-plus-den and two-bedroom plans.

Both suites listed when I checked had a den, which is common here. Before you treat a den as a second bedroom, ask whether it has a door and a window; in many buildings of this era it has neither.

I could not find published ceiling heights or a parking and locker count for Jade in any source I checked. Ask the listing agent to confirm the ceiling height of the suite you are looking at, and confirm in the status certificate that the parking space and any locker are deeded or exclusive-use to that suite.

Daily life on Spring Garden

Spring Garden Avenue runs east from Yonge toward Bayview through a mostly residential pocket. You get quiet at night and a short drive or bus ride to Yonge, Sheppard and the Bayview Village shops, which UrbanToronto noted along with the 401 when the building topped off.

The trade-off is that you are not on the subway’s doorstep in the way a Yonge Street tower is. Look at the transit, parks and food listed in the data panel on this page, then walk the route you would actually take to work before you commit.

This pocket is changing. Older houses nearby keep being replaced with larger custom homes, and the Yonge and Sheppard area to the west has kept adding towers. For an owner who wants a low building with the city’s amenities nearby, that mix is the appeal.

Price per square foot, and a fee that looks higher than it is

Condos.ca puts the building average at about $709 per square foot. That is below what newer towers closer to Yonge and Sheppard usually ask, which is typical for a 2014 mid-rise without a subway connection.

The two suites listed when I checked were asking between $425,000 and $669,900. Two listings is a thin sample, so treat that as a snapshot rather than the building’s value; the sold data panel on this page is a better guide.

Those same two listings work out to about $1.22 per square foot in maintenance fees, which is high for North York. Before you dismiss that, look at what it buys: air conditioning, heat, building insurance, parking and water are all included. In a newer tower where you pay separately for heat, cooling and a parking space, the gap narrows considerably.

Small buildings also spread fixed costs, such as concierge staffing, over fewer suites, so a seven-storey building will often carry a higher fee per foot than a tower. That is the price of the scale. What you want to see is a healthy reserve fund and no unusual jumps in the fee over the past few years.

Next door, Twenty One Clairtrell averages about $830 per square foot on condos.ca, but its fee does not list parking. If you are choosing between the two, price the parking space separately and compare the totals, not the headline numbers.

Building specifications

Amenities at Jade Condominiums

Condos.ca lists a concierge, gym, party room, rooftop deck, visitor parking and Beanfield Fibre, and UrbanToronto’s 2013 report added a theatre and a games room. It is a modest package with no pool, which is one reason the fee is not higher still; the rooftop deck is the feature owners tend to use most in summer.

Jatin’s honest take on Jade Condominiums

Jade Condominiums — frequently asked questions

Looking at Willowdale, Yonge & Sheppard, Bayview Village and North York Centre more broadly? Start with my Toronto community guide — the neighbourhoods, what each pocket is like, and how they compare.