Rockefeller on Bayview, 18 Kenaston Gardens: Big Two-Beds, Heat in the Fee

Rockefeller on Bayview is the building I show people who have outgrown a one-bedroom but are not ready to leave the Sheppard and Bayview corner. It is a 2006 Daniels tower of 20 storeys, the fee carries heat, cooling and parking, and right now nearly everything for sale here is a two-bedroom. The trade-off is a fee that looks heavy on paper until you do the arithmetic. I’m Jatin Dua, RE/MAX Quantum Realty.

A Daniels tower inside the NY Towers enclave

Kenaston Gardens is not a through street in any useful sense. It is a short loop of Daniels-built towers tucked behind the corner of Sheppard and Bayview, the group Daniels has marketed as its NY Towers community. Rockefeller sits in that cluster with Empire at 17 Barberry Place, and UrbanToronto has covered later additions such as the eight-storey NY Place on Kenaston Gardens.

The practical effect is a quiet block with very little through traffic, surrounded by buildings of a similar age and builder. You get the feel of a small residential precinct rather than a tower on an arterial road, and that is the main thing buyers notice on a first visit.

Daniels also still has a presence here. Its rental arm, Daniels Gateway, markets two-bedroom, two-bathroom suites at 18 Kenaston Gardens for lease, which tells you some suites are held by an owner that rents them out long-term. That is not a problem in itself, but it is a reason to read the owner-occupancy figures in the panel on this page.

Suite sizes: this is a two-bedroom building

Condos.ca puts suites at roughly 529 to 1,280 square feet. That is a wider and larger range than many towers from the same era, and the current listings bear it out: all four active sales are two-bedrooms, mostly in the 800 to 999 square foot bands.

Daniels’ own rental description lists two bedrooms and two baths, granite kitchen counters, ceramic tile, a mix of hardwood and carpet, five appliances, and balconies. Those are the original mid-2000s specifications, so expect many suites to have been updated by now, and expect the ones that have not to need it.

I could not find the architect or the ceiling heights in any source I checked. If ceiling height or a split-bedroom plan matters to you, ask for the floor plan of the specific suite and check whether the two bedrooms sit on opposite sides of the living area, which suits roommates and older children better.

What the fee covers, and why it looks high

The fee here is not small. Across the four active listings it runs from about $990 to $1,230 a month, which condos.ca works out to roughly $1.16 per square foot. Next to a newer building quoting 70 or 80 cents, that looks expensive.

Look at what is inside it, though. Condos.ca lists air conditioning, common elements, heat, building insurance, parking and water as included. Hydro is the main utility left to you. In a newer tower you would usually be paying for your own heating and cooling, and often for parking, on top of the fee.

That bundle also explains part of the price per square foot. Buyers discount suites with high monthly fees, so you are partly paying less up front and more every month. Decide which side of that trade suits your budget before comparing this building with anything newer.

Daily life at Sheppard and Bayview

The draw of this pocket is Bayview Village Shopping Centre, which Daniels positions as being right outside the door, along with the subway and quick access to Highways 401 and 404. For a household with one car and one commuter, that combination is hard to beat in North York.

The area has also been densifying for more than a decade. UrbanToronto described Bayview Village in 2011 as being quietly redeveloped into a mixed-use hub, with several developers active around the corner. More towers mean more neighbours and more construction, so if a particular view matters, check what is proposed nearby before you buy.

The panel on this page shows transit, schools, parks and restaurants. Walk the loop at rush hour too, because the few streets in and out of Kenaston Gardens carry all the cars from every tower in the cluster.

Pricing: below the newer stock, with the fee priced in

Condos.ca puts the building average at about $691 per square foot. For a 2006 tower near a subway station and a major mall, that is on the modest side, and the bundled fee is a large part of the reason.

The four active listings are all two-bedrooms, asking from about $595,000 to $750,000, with fees between roughly $990 and $1,230 a month. That spread mostly tracks size and floor, so compare suites per square foot and per dollar of fee rather than by the headline price.

It helps to compare inside the same enclave. Empire, the larger Daniels tower a block away at 17 Barberry Place, carries current fees of roughly 93 cents per square foot, but its listings are mostly one-bedrooms, and a fee average drawn from small suites does not always hold for larger ones. Line up two suites of the same size and the same inclusions before deciding which building is the better deal.

For recent sold prices and how quickly suites are moving, use the automatic panel on this page. If you want me to run the numbers on a specific suite against nearby buildings, book a call.

Building specifications

Amenities at Rockefeller on Bayview

Daniels lists an indoor pool, a fitness centre, games and media rooms and a 24-hour concierge here, which covers most of what a household would otherwise pay a gym or club for. In a 231-suite building, that package is shared by fewer people than in the larger towers nearby.

Jatin’s honest take on Rockefeller on Bayview

Rockefeller on Bayview — 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.