NY2 Condos, 18 Rean Dr: Daniels’ Seven-Storey Finale at NY Towers

NY2 is the small building in a neighbourhood of towers. While the rest of Daniels’ NY Towers community at Bayview and Sheppard went up 20 and 30 storeys, this last phase stopped at seven, with 140 suites over ground-floor retail on Sheppard. That makes it quieter and more personal than its neighbours, and much harder to buy into. I’m Jatin Dua, RE/MAX Quantum Realty.

The last piece of NY Towers

Daniels spent about a decade building the NY Towers community around Sheppard and Bayview, and its own rental site says more than 3,000 homes and over 5,000 residents now live there. NY2 is described as the final condominium in that community, and it finished the corner at Sheppard Avenue East and Rean Drive.

It is a deliberate change of scale. At seven storeys and 140 suites, NY2 is a mid-rise on the main street rather than another tower behind it. In practice that means short elevator waits, a lobby where faces become familiar quickly, and a building small enough that one owner’s voice counts at the annual meeting.

Daniels is a long-running Toronto builder, and the more than 3,000 homes it has delivered in NY Towers alone show the scale it works at. Its name on a building does not replace a status certificate review, but it does mean you can look at a decade of its neighbouring buildings to see how they have held up.

Blue glass on the corner

Core Architects designed the building. When UrbanToronto toured it in 2014, it described a blue glazed corner rising above an inset ground-floor retail unit, with white horizontal spandrel bands tying the glass to the white balconies on the south and east sides. It is a clean, simple building rather than a landmark, and the Daniels Gateway description adds brick to the mix of glass and modern lines.

The ground floor was planned with retail at the corner; UrbanToronto reported it was slated to become the flagship branch of the Korean Exchange Bank of Canada. Retail at grade gives the Sheppard frontage some life, but ask which tenants occupy the space today, because commercial uses can affect noise, loading and garbage handling.

UrbanToronto gave the residential entrance as 8 Rean Drive, while the building’s mailing address is 18 Rean Drive. If you are delivering an offer or meeting a tenant, use 18.

Small suites and who lives here

Condos.ca lists suites from about 372 to 836 square feet, which is mostly studios, one-bedrooms and compact two-bedrooms. The building was designed for singles, couples and first-time buyers, and a 372-square-foot plan is essentially a studio, so look at the plan rather than the bedroom count.

One feature of this building is that Daniels Gateway, the developer’s rental arm, advertises suites at 18 Rean Drive for lease. That tells you a share of suites are run as managed rentals, which usually means consistent upkeep of those units and a steady tenant presence. Ask the manager how many suites are leased and whether any single owner holds a large block, because that affects voting at owners’ meetings.

There were no suites for sale when I checked and three for rent. In a 140-suite building, a quiet resale market is normal, and it means the right suite may take months to appear.

If you are an investor, the same rental presence cuts both ways. Tenants already know the address, but you may be competing with professionally managed suites in the same building when you look for one, so price and present your suite accordingly.

Living at Sheppard and Bayview

This is one of the easier addresses in North York for daily life. Daniels points to Bayview Village Shopping Centre nearby, TTC service on Sheppard, and quick access to Highways 401 and 404 and the Don Valley Parkway. The data panel on this page gives the exact transit and walking details.

Rean Drive itself is a short street of mid-rise and high-rise condos, so you are surrounded by neighbours rather than traffic. The busy part is Sheppard, so suites on the quieter side of the building are worth asking about.

The bigger picture is that Sheppard between Yonge and Bayview has filled in with condos over the past twenty years, and NY Towers is a large part of that. What you get now is a finished neighbourhood rather than a construction zone: the towers are built, the residents are here, and the shops have followed. For a buyer, that maturity is worth more than a promise of what might come.

Prices and fees

Condos.ca puts NY2’s average at about $763 per square foot. That is higher than many of the larger towers around Bayview and Sheppard, and the premium makes sense: smaller buildings with few listings tend to hold value per square foot, and small suites always carry a higher price per square foot than large ones.

With nothing listed for sale when I checked, there is no current asking range to quote. The sales data panel beside this review shows what has actually traded here, and that is a better guide than any single listing.

The fee covers heat, air conditioning, water and parking. Without current listings I cannot give a fee per square foot here, so get it from the status certificate and compare it on a like-for-like basis, adding back parking and utilities to any building that charges them separately. In a 140-suite building the fixed costs of concierge and insurance are spread over fewer owners, so the per-square-foot fee can run higher than a tower’s.

Building specifications

Amenities at NY2 Condos

UrbanToronto’s 2014 description included a café, an exercise room and a 1,200-square-foot party room, and condos.ca adds a concierge, rooftop deck and Beanfield Fibre. It is a compact package suited to the building’s size, and the fibre option is a real plus if you work from home.

Jatin’s honest take on NY2 Condos

NY2 Condos — 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.