25 Black Hawkway Townhouses: 29 Self-Run 1975 Homes Near Bathurst

25 Black Hawkway Townhouses is one of the smallest condominium corporations you will find in the north end of the city: 29 townhouses on Black Hawk Way, registered in 1975 and run by the owners themselves. That gives you house-style living near Bathurst and Steeles without a detached price, and it also means you are buying into a small, self-governed budget that is now 50 years old. I’m Jatin Dua, RE/MAX Quantum Realty.

One of several corporations on the same street

Black Hawk Way is not one condominium. The street and the short bird-named lanes off it are split among several separate townhouse corporations, each with its own board, budget and reserve fund. This one covers the homes numbered 1 to 49.

That matters more than it sounds. A neighbouring complex a few doors away can have a different fee, a different reserve fund position and different rules, even if the houses look almost identical from the sidewalk. When you compare listings on this street, confirm which corporation each one belongs to before you compare the monthly fee.

Condos.ca records the corporation as YCC-236. The YCC prefix is the early York numbering used for the first condominiums in this part of the city, before the later MTCC and TSCC series. In plain terms, this is first-generation North York condominium housing.

Self-managed: what that really means

Condos.ca lists 25 Black Hawkway Townhouses as self-managed. With 29 homes, that usually means volunteer directors handle the contracts, the budget, the collection of fees and the calls when something breaks, without a licensed management company in between.

Self-management can keep costs down, and in a small group of committed owners it often works well. It also concentrates a lot of responsibility in a few people. If those directors move or burn out, the corporation can drift, and records can become hard to find.

Before you firm up, ask who signs the cheques, who keeps the records, and whether the corporation has a current reserve fund study and up-to-date financial statements. Ontario condominium law applies to a self-run corporation exactly as it does to a tower with a full-time manager, so those documents should exist.

It is also worth asking how decisions get made. Find out how often the board meets, whether owners attend the annual general meeting, and how many of the 29 homes are owner-occupied. In a corporation this small, those answers tell you a lot about how smoothly the next big repair will go.

A 1975 townhouse, inside and out

Condos.ca lists the building as one storey, which is how its database often records low-rise townhouse complexes rather than a reliable count of levels inside each home. Ask for the floor plan of the specific unit, and walk it, so you know exactly how many levels and stairs you are taking on.

At roughly 50 years old, the original systems in these homes have almost certainly been replaced at least once, but not always at the same time or to the same standard. Look at the age of the furnace, air conditioner and water heater, the electrical panel, the windows and the roof over the unit you are buying.

Also find out what the corporation maintains and what you maintain. In townhouse condos the line between owner and corporation for roofs, windows, doors, decks and fences is set by the declaration, and it varies a great deal from one complex to the next. That line decides whether a repair is your bill or a shared one.

Living near Bathurst and Steeles

Westminster-Branson sits at the top of the city, with Steeles Avenue and the city limit along its northern edge and the west branch of the Don River running through the area. The neighbourhood began as the settlement of Fisherville, and it has been part of North York since 1922 and the City of Toronto since 1998.

Day to day, this is a practical, established part of the city. Bathurst Street carries a long run of bakeries, delis and restaurants, and the area has a large Russian-speaking community. The ravine lands of the West Don and the larger parks to the west give you real green space within reach.

For a buyer who wants a townhouse with a door at grade and a small yard rather than an apartment, this pocket is one of the more affordable ways to get that in the city. The trade-off is age and a small corporation, which is why the documents matter as much as the house.

How to think about price here

There were no active sale listings at 1-49 Black Hawk Way when I wrote this, and a 29-home corporation does not trade often. With so few sales, a single result can swing any average, so I would not rely on a building-level price per square foot on its own.

Instead, price a home here against two things: recent sales in the other townhouse corporations on Black Hawk Way and nearby streets, adjusted for size, condition and fee, and the cost of a freehold townhouse or semi in the area. The sales panel on this page shows the aggregate figures that exist for this building.

Fee inclusions are not published for YCC-236, so ask the seller for the current monthly fee and the budget, and confirm what it pays for. In many townhouse corporations of this age the fee covers building insurance, common elements and water, while heat and hydro are on each owner, but you should see it in writing. If you want a sold-price check for the street, my building sold report is the place to start.

Building specifications

Amenities at 25 Black Hawkway Townhouses

There is no gym, pool or party room here, and that is the point: with almost no shared facilities to run, more of your fee can go to roofs, paving and the reserve fund. Visitor parking and permission to barbecue are the practical extras that make it feel like a house.

Jatin’s honest take on 25 Black Hawkway Townhouses

25 Black Hawkway Townhouses — frequently asked questions

Looking at York Mills, Don Mills, Lawrence Park, Bathurst Manor and midtown-north Toronto more broadly? Start with my Toronto community guide — the neighbourhoods, what each pocket is like, and how they compare.