Selene, 225 Village Green Square: Tridel’s Last Tower at Metrogate

Selene is the tower I suggest when a buyer wants a recent Tridel building in Scarborough without paying a new-build premium. It finished Tridel’s Metrogate community in 2021, it faces the community’s park, and the fee includes parking. The question is whether its modest amenity list and highway setting suit how you live. I’m Jatin Dua, RE/MAX Quantum Realty.

The final piece of Metrogate

Metrogate is Tridel’s master-planned community at Kennedy Road and Highway 401, built in phases. When Selene launched in 2016, five towers were already built and a sixth was getting ready to start. Selene was announced as the seventh and last residential tower.

Being last has an advantage. You are buying into a finished community, not a construction zone that will continue for years, and the buildings around you have already shown how they age and resell. You can walk through the older Metrogate towers to see how Tridel’s finishes hold up.

Graziani + Corazza Architects designed the 31-storey tower. Unit counts differ by source: UrbanToronto reported 296 suites at launch, and condos.ca lists 310 for the registered corporation. Either way it is a mid-sized tower by Scarborough standards.

The park side and the highway side

Selene fronts onto Metrogate Park, the green space at the centre of the community. That is the main daily-life feature: a place to walk a dog, let children run, or sit outside without crossing a major road.

Suites on the park side get a view that is unlikely to be built over, which is not something you can say about most new towers near the 401. The other sides look toward the highway, Kennedy Road and surrounding development. When you view a suite, check which side it faces, and at night listen for highway noise with the windows open.

This location is built around the car. Highway 401 is right at the edge of the community, which makes commuting by car to downtown, the airport area or Markham straightforward. UrbanToronto noted Agincourt GO and Kennedy Station as the nearby rapid transit options, and the data panel shows the actual distances and Walk Score.

The area is still changing. KSquare Condos, two new towers on Kennedy Road completed in 2024, sits close by, and more development is likely around the corridor. That brings more shops and services over time, and more construction in the meantime.

My advice is simple: decide which side of the building you want before you start comparing prices. A park-facing suite and a highway-facing suite in the same tower are different products, and the price gap between them is often smaller than the difference in how they feel to live in.

Layouts and finishes

Suites run from about 565 to 1,040 square feet. The model suite shown at launch was a one-bedroom-plus-den with two bathrooms, an open kitchen and living room, and floor-to-ceiling windows. The current listings mostly fall into two groups: one-plus-dens in the 500s and two-bedrooms in the 800s.

Tridel’s launch finishes included plank laminate floors with an acoustic underlay, granite or quartz counters, and floor-to-ceiling glazing with thermally broken aluminum frames and opening awning windows. Those are standard but sensible choices; the acoustic underlay matters in a concrete tower where you will hear your neighbours’ footsteps otherwise.

Two bathrooms in a one-plus-den is worth noting. It makes the den more useful as a guest room and it helps at resale, especially to buyers sharing with a parent or a roommate.

Choosing between the Metrogate towers

The most useful thing about buying at Metrogate is also the trickiest: there are several similar Tridel towers within the same community, all competing for the same buyers. That keeps prices honest, and it gives you more choice than you would have in a stand-alone building.

It also means you should compare like with like. Older Metrogate towers may offer larger plans or lower prices per square foot, while Selene offers the newest construction and the park frontage. Look at the fee inclusions in each, because they are not identical across corporations, and ask whether any amenities or roads are shared between buildings.

For resale, Selene’s advantages are its age and its position on the park. When you eventually sell, you will be competing with the other towers too, so buy the suite that stands out: a park view, a sensible two-bedroom plan, or a one-plus-den with a second bathroom. Those are the suites I see hold their value best in communities like this.

Finally, look at the owner and renter split on the data panel. A higher share of owners usually means more people at meetings and more pressure to keep the building in good shape, which matters more over twenty years than any finish in the model suite.

Price per foot and fee value

Condos.ca puts Selene’s average at about $690 per square foot. For a 2021 Tridel building, that is on the lower side of the newer Scarborough towers I have reviewed, partly because Metrogate offers buyers several similar towers to choose from.

The three active listings asked from $410,000 to $525,000 when I checked. Three listings is a small sample, so I would also look at recent sales in the building and the other Metrogate towers before setting an offer.

Fees on those listings ran from $531 to $706 a month, about $0.83 per square foot. The fee covers common elements, building insurance, water and parking. Heat, cooling and hydro are not on the inclusion list, so add them to your monthly cost.

With parking included, the fee compares reasonably with newer towers that charge for parking separately. It is not a low fee, though, and it should be judged against the reserve fund study rather than against advertising.

Building specifications

Amenities at Selene

Selene’s own package is short: a concierge, a two-storey lobby, a fitness centre, a party room and a rooftop terrace. The park outside the door does much of the work that a larger amenity floor would do elsewhere.

Jatin’s honest take on Selene

Selene — frequently asked questions

Looking at Agincourt, L’Amoreaux, Milliken, Dorset Park and Wexford in Scarborough more broadly? Start with my Toronto community guide — the neighbourhoods, what each pocket is like, and how they compare.