The Loop Urban Towns, 630 Rogers Rd: Townhomes on an Old Streetcar Loop

The name is not marketing fluff. The Loop Urban Towns sit at Rogers Road and Bicknell Avenue, where the TTC’s Bicknell Loop turned streetcars around for half a century. Today it is a small, 62-unit townhouse corporation with some of the lowest fees per square foot I see in this part of York, and that low fee is both its appeal and the thing I would examine most closely. I’m Jatin Dua, RE/MAX Quantum Realty.

Built on the old Bicknell streetcar loop

For about 50 years, the Rogers Road streetcar ended at an off-street loop on the northwest corner of Rogers Road and Bicknell Avenue, a block east of Weston Road. Streetcars stopped running on Rogers Road in 1974, and buses used the loop for decades after that before the TTC moved them elsewhere and declared the land surplus.

Sources disagree slightly on the dates: one transit history gives the loop’s opening as 1925 and says buses left in 2000, while another records the line opening in 1924 and a bus change in 2020. Both agree the land was sold for housing, and that the new homes arrived in the late 2010s. This complex, registered in 2020, carries the name.

That history explains the site’s shape. The City’s 2015 planning report describes an irregular parcel of about half a hectare in the northeast quadrant of Weston Road and Rogers Road, wrapped by Bicknell, Rogers, Forbes and Nashville Avenue, with an autobody shop and a row of houses carved out of it. It was then still holding the old loop’s one-storey garage building and open storage.

The land was owned by Build Toronto, the City’s real estate arm at the time, and the proposal came with an unusual feature: interest-free home ownership assistance loans, with no monthly payments, aimed at up to half the buyers. If you buy a resale unit here, ask whether the seller’s purchase involved one of those loans, because it can affect how the sale closes.

Stacked towns and a small apartment block

The 2015 plan, by architect Bayne Anderson for Build Toronto, called for 63 condominium units: two three-storey stacked townhouse blocks with 32 suites, and a four-storey apartment building on Rogers Road with 31 suites. The suite mix was almost all one- and two-bedroom. The registered corporation has 62 units, so the built version is very close to that plan. Today the complex is listed with suites from about 541 to 1,522 square feet.

Current supply is concentrated in two-bedroom plans, most of them between 700 and 999 square feet. That makes this a realistic option for a couple or a small family moving out of an apartment, and gives buyers a handful of comparables to judge price and condition against.

In the stacked blocks, lower units were planned with patios at grade and upper units with rooftop terraces. That is the biggest difference between units here: a lower suite gives you easy access and a patio, an upper suite gives you stairs and a private roof terrace. The 2015 plan put 71 parking spaces on the surface rather than in an underground garage, which matters for long-term costs, because the corporation does not have a parking membrane to replace.

A small corporation with a low fee

Fees across current listings average about $0.52 per square foot. That is low, especially next to new condo apartments in the area that often run well above that. The fee inclusions are not published on the listing data I rely on, so ask exactly what the fee covers and what you pay yourself.

A low fee in a young townhouse corporation can mean an efficient complex with few shared services and, here, surface parking rather than an underground garage. It can also mean the reserve fund is thin for the roofs, rooftop terraces, paving and the apartment block’s systems that will one day need replacing. In a 62-unit corporation, those costs are split among few owners. The reserve fund study and the last two years of budgets will tell you which story applies here.

Ace Condominium Management is listed as the manager. Ask how often the corporation has changed managers, and read recent board minutes for any discussion of deficiencies with the builder, which is common in the first years after registration.

Rogers Road and Weston Road day to day

This is a residential pocket of old York with a strong local character: older houses on a tight street grid, with Rogers Road and Weston Road carrying the local shops and services. Once you are on Bicknell or Forbes, it is quieter than the arterial roads suggest.

The bigger change in the wider area is along Eglinton, where the Crosstown line and the redevelopment around Mount Dennis are reshaping what this corner of the city offers. The transit panel on this page shows the actual routes and walking distances from the complex.

Price per square foot and current listings

The complex averages about $671 per square foot. Five units were listed for sale at the time of writing, asking between $499,000 and $681,000. For a newer townhouse format in York, that puts it below most freehold options nearby and broadly in line with two-bedroom condo apartments in newer towers along Eglinton.

Monthly fees across those listings ranged from about $390 to $660. The spread reflects unit size and share, and at around $0.52 per square foot the fee is a real advantage, as long as the reserve fund is adequately funded.

With only 62 units, sales are infrequent. Price a unit against recent sales here and against comparable condo towns in Mount Dennis and Weston, not against one data point.

Building specifications

Amenities at The Loop Urban Towns

Amenities are minimal: bike storage, visitor parking and permission to barbecue. That is typical of a small townhouse complex and is part of why the fee stays low, but it means your gym, party space and parcel handling are your own problem.

Jatin’s honest take on The Loop Urban Towns

The Loop Urban Towns — frequently asked questions

Looking at Downsview, Weston, York University Heights, Rexdale and northwest Toronto more broadly? Start with my Toronto community guide — the neighbourhoods, what each pocket is like, and how they compare.