16 Foundry Condos, 16 Foundry Ave: 128 Low-Rise Homes With Heat Included

16 Foundry is the building I point to when a buyer wants townhouse-sized space west of Lansdowne without the noise and the elevator wait of a tower. It is a 128-home, two-storey condominium from 2013 in Davenport Village, and its homes start at about 850 square feet, which is bigger than most of what sells around Dupont. The fee covers heat, which almost no townhouse complex near here does. I’m Jatin Dua, RE/MAX Quantum Realty.

A piece of the old General Electric lands

Foundry Avenue takes its name from what was here before. In 1900 the Canada Foundry Company set up to make iron products, and Canadian General Electric took it over and built a factory complex on about 60 acres south of Davenport Road and west of Lansdowne, next to two rail lines. CGE sold the works in 1981 and left the area.

After the waste on the site was cleaned up, the City issued a plan in 2006 for a new community called Davenport Village. It has been rebuilt in phases since then as townhouses, stacked towns, a loft conversion and taller buildings. 16 Foundry registered in early 2013, so it sits in the middle of that sequence: after the first Davenport Village townhouse phases and before the towers that came later.

The practical point is that this is new construction on reclaimed land, not a converted factory. You get modern framing, windows and mechanical systems from a single build, and none of the quirks of a century-old shell. What you give up is the brick-and-beam character that the Foundry Lofts conversion up the street offers.

Two storeys, 128 homes and real square footage

Condos.ca records 16 Foundry as a two-storey low-rise with 128 homes. That combination is unusual. Most complexes with this many homes in the west end are either towers or are split into several small blocks, and a corporation this size spreads the cost of roofs, the garage and the grounds across a lot of owners.

The size range is the main draw. Homes run from about 850 to 1,420 square feet, so even the smallest plan is larger than a typical one-bedroom-plus-den in a new tower nearby. That is family-usable space, and it is the reason I would shortlist this building for a couple planning a first child.

I could not confirm from a reliable source how the homes are configured, such as whether they are stacked one over another or side by side, how many bedrooms each plan has, or the ceiling heights. Ask for the floor plan and the registered survey for the specific home, and check which stairs, terraces or patios are exclusive-use common elements on the status certificate.

What the fee covers, and why heat matters

The maintenance fee here includes common elements, heat, building insurance, parking and water. Parking and water are normal in this area. Heat is not. In many townhouse complexes each home has its own gas meter, and Davenport Village II next door, for example, does not list heat among its fee inclusions.

When you compare fees with nearby complexes, add a realistic heating cost back onto the ones that exclude it before deciding which is cheaper. A higher fee here can still mean a lower total monthly cost. Hydro is not on the list, so expect your own electricity bill.

A heat-included fee also usually means a shared heating plant, and shared plants eventually need replacement. At about 13 years old, the building is getting close to the age when reserve fund studies start to show boilers, roofing, sealants and the garage’s traffic coating as upcoming items. Read the most recent study and see how the corporation plans to pay for them.

Daily life on Foundry Avenue

Foundry Avenue is an internal street, so it is quieter than Dupont or Lansdowne. The rail corridor along the western edge of Davenport Village is the noise to think about, and how much you hear depends on where your home sits in the complex. I always tell clients to visit once in the evening before firming up.

Errands are easy. Davenport Village has a park and playground at its centre, plus a grocer, a drug store and coffee shops within the community, and the Galleria on the Park redevelopment at Dufferin and Dupont is adding a new community centre, a large park and retail over the next several years. For transit, schools and the Walk Score, see the data panel on this page.

The surrounding streets are still maturing. The trees are young and the street life is concentrated at the corners rather than through the blocks. If you want an older main street, Bloor Street to the south and the Junction Triangle to the west give you more character.

Pricing: thin supply, reasonable per-foot numbers

Condos.ca puts the building’s average at about $715 per square foot. On a home of 850 to 1,420 square feet that is a meaningful discount to what new towers along Dupont are asking per foot, and you are getting more space and no shared elevators.

There were no homes listed for sale at the time of writing, so I can’t give you a current asking range. With 128 homes, resales do come up, but in small numbers, which means you need to watch for them and move quickly. My building sold report gives you aggregate sold numbers when you are ready to compare.

When you do compare, use the other Davenport Village low-rise phases and 15 Foundry across the street rather than tower condos. Adjust for the fee inclusions: a home here with heat included should not be judged on the monthly fee alone.

Building specifications

Amenities at 16 Foundry Condos

There are no gyms, pools or party rooms here, and that is part of why the fee works out reasonably for what it covers. Barbecues are permitted and there is visitor parking, which matters more in daily life than a rarely used amenity room.

Jatin’s honest take on 16 Foundry Condos

16 Foundry Condos — frequently asked questions

Looking at the Junction, Corso Italia, Hillcrest Village and west-central Toronto more broadly? Start with my Toronto community guide — the neighbourhoods, what each pocket is like, and how they compare.