The Bluffs, 2799 Kingston Rd: Red Brick, Two-Storey Lofts, Low $/sq ft

The Bluffs is the building that convinced a lot of people Kingston Road in Cliffcrest could carry a real mid-rise. Skale Developments and RAW Design gave it hand-laid red brick, black window frames and two-storey lofts on top, and it still trades at a price per square foot well below most new Scarborough condos. I’m Jatin Dua, RE/MAX Quantum Realty.

Real brick on a full city block

The Bluffs takes up a full block of Kingston Road between Gradewell Drive and Eastville Avenue, a site that sat vacant before construction. RAW Design broke up the long Kingston Road frontage with projecting brick bays, and used a more varied, slightly irregular north face so the building does not loom over the houses behind it.

The brick is the detail I point out on showings. Construction coverage in 2020 noted that it was hand-laid crimson brick on the south, east and west sides, not precast panels with brick faces, set against a window wall with black aluminum mullions. It reads as a much more expensive building than its price suggests.

Interiors were by figure3 and the landscaping by Adesso Design. For a 2021 Scarborough mid-rise, that is a design team you would normally expect downtown.

Skale has made Kingston Road something of a home base since. That matters when you buy a resale here: a developer still active on the same street has a reputation to protect, and the quality of this first building is the reference point buyers use for the next ones.

Nine storeys or eight: the loft floors explain it

Condos.ca lists eight storeys. The construction coverage describes nine, with two-storey loft-style suites taking up the eighth and ninth floors under a mechanical penthouse. The difference is almost certainly how the loft level is counted, so do not let it confuse you when comparing listings.

Those top-floor lofts are the most distinctive suites in the building and the ones I would look at first if you want volume. Lower down, the 2017 plans described 9-foot ceilings in the main living areas and one- to three-bedroom suites from about 475 to 1,580 square feet, which lines up with the 475 to 1,571 square feet that condos.ca shows today.

The plans also gave every elevation balconies or terraces, some over 500 square feet. On the south side you look toward the lake and the Bluffs; on the west, upper floors pick up the Midtown skyline in the distance.

Two addresses, one corporation, and a garage worth checking

The building is listed under both 2799 and 2815 Kingston Road. Condos.ca shows one corporation, TSCC-2880, for both, but confirm the corporation number on your status certificate before you rely on any figure.

The original 2017 plan counted 182 suites and 172 parking spaces on three underground levels. The finished building is listed at 188 suites, and 2020 coverage describes a two-and-a-half-level garage. Parking was planned at less than one space per suite, so many suites will not come with a space. Check the listing and the status certificate before you assume you have one.

Two retail units of nearly 20,000 square feet in total were planned along Kingston Road. Ask what they are leased to now, because ground-floor tenants change the feel of the entrance and, for some uses, the noise.

Lockers are not described in the material I found, so treat a locker as something to confirm on the listing and in the status certificate, not something to assume.

What Cliffcrest is like day to day

This stretch of Kingston Road sits a short distance north of the Scarborough Bluffs, between Brimley Road and the east end of St. Clair Avenue East. It is a car-oriented strip of plazas and older low commercial buildings that is slowly being rebuilt as mid-rise housing.

Skale has since announced The Residences at Bluffers Park with Diamante at 2790 to 2800 Kingston Road, so more construction and more neighbours are coming. That brings new shops and services over time, and some disruption while it happens. If you are buying a south-facing suite, look at what is planned across the road and how tall it will be.

The real pull here is the Bluffs themselves and Bluffer’s Park below them. For transit, schools and the rest of the neighbourhood numbers, the data panel on this page has the details.

What The Bluffs costs, and what the fee buys

Condos.ca shows an average of about $582 per square foot here. For a 2021 building with this design quality, that is well below what newer Scarborough towers and Kingston Road boutique buildings to the west ask, and it is the main value case for the building.

At the time of writing two suites were listed for sale, asking between $409,900 and $609,900. Their monthly fees ran from $642 to $726, about $0.92 per square foot on average.

The fee covers common elements, building insurance and water. Heat, cooling and hydro are on your own account, and parking, where a suite has it, should be confirmed on the status certificate. That fee sits in a normal range for a 188-suite building with a concierge, and it is far easier to carry than the fees in Kingston Road’s smallest boutique buildings.

The spread in asking prices mostly reflects size, floor and outlook. A compact suite on a low floor facing the houses behind and a large lake-facing suite near the top are not comparable products, so look at price per square foot and outlook together, and ask your agent for recent sales of similar suites in the same stack.

Building specifications

Amenities at The Bluffs

The package covers what most owners use: a concierge, a gym, a media lounge, a private dining room and a south-facing shared terrace. There is no pool, which keeps operating costs down and is one reason the fee stays moderate for a building of this size.

Jatin’s honest take on The Bluffs

The Bluffs — frequently asked questions

Looking at Scarborough Bluffs, West Hill, Guildwood, Woburn, Malvern and Rouge more broadly? Start with my Toronto community guide — the neighbourhoods, what each pocket is like, and how they compare.