Crescent Town, Massey Square: Owning a 1972 Condo on the Subway

Crescent Town is where I send buyers who want to own on the subway with the smallest possible mortgage. It is a 1972 planned community of towers above Victoria Park station, with walkways that keep pedestrians above the street, and its condominium suites trade at some of the lowest prices I see anywhere in the city. The low price is real, and so is the homework that comes with it. I’m Jatin Dua, RE/MAX Quantum Realty.

A planned town built over a subway station

Crescent Town was not a single developer tower dropped onto a lot. The land was once part of Dentonia Park, Walter Massey’s model farm, and later the campus of Crescent School, which operated there until 1969. When the school’s property was sold, developers built a complete high-rise neighbourhood designed around the then-new Victoria Park subway station.

The defining idea was separating people from cars. The pedestrian walkways run above street level, linking the towers to the school, the recreation centre and the shops, and a partly covered walkway connects the central square to Victoria Park station on Line 2. Some planners still describe it as an experiment in community design, and you feel that the first time you walk from your lobby to the subway without crossing a road.

Sources differ slightly on dates. One neighbourhood guide says construction finished in 1971, while condos.ca records 1972, the year YCC-76 registered. Either way, these are some of the oldest condominium towers in the city.

Which buildings are the condo, and which are rentals

This is the first thing to get right. Crescent Town mixes condominium towers, stacked condominium townhouses and rental apartment buildings, and the sources do not agree on exactly which addresses belong to which. Condos.ca groups 1–5 Massey Square with 6–12 Crescent Town Road under YCC-76, while a neighbourhood guide places the condominiums on Massey Square and the rentals on Crescent Town Road.

The listings I see for sale are at 1, 3 and 5 Massey Square. If you are looking at any other address in the complex, confirm on title and in the status certificate that it is part of YCC-76 and not a rental building or a different corporation. It matters for fees, for governance and for financing.

At 1,420 suites, this is a very large corporation by Toronto standards. That scale spreads big repair bills across many owners, which helps. It also means board decisions affect a lot of people, so the annual general meeting and the board minutes are worth reading closely.

An all-inclusive fee on a 54-year-old building

The fee here covers common elements, heat, hydro, water, building insurance and cable TV. Current listings work out to roughly $0.88 per square foot, which is low for a fee that includes hydro and heat. Parking is not on the inclusion list, so if you need a space, ask whether one comes with the suite and what it costs.

Age is the other half of that equation. A tower complex built in the early 1970s will have replaced, or will soon face, windows, balcony slabs and railings, elevators, roofing, garage structures, plumbing risers and the central heating and cooling plant. Those are large numbers, and in a corporation this size they are planned years ahead. The reserve fund study will tell you how far along that cycle the corporation is.

Condos.ca lists the manager as the corporation itself, rather than a named management company. That can mean the corporation employs its own staff, which is not unusual for a complex this large, or it can simply be a gap in the data. Ask who runs the buildings day to day before you firm up.

The Crescent Town Club and daily life

Next to the towers sits the Crescent Town Club at 2A The Market Place, a recreation complex with a 25-metre pool, an indoor track, a full-size gymnasium and squash and racquetball courts. It also runs programmes for children, teens, adults and seniors. Condos.ca lists an indoor pool among the condominium’s amenities. Ask whether that refers to the club and whether owners pay for membership separately.

At the north end, Taylor Creek Park offers a long, wooded ravine for walking, bird watching and an exercise trail. To the south, the Danforth retail strip is within walking distance, and the area has a strong cluster of Bangladeshi-owned shops and restaurants around Victoria Park and Danforth.

The station area is about to change. The City has adopted a Major Transit Station Area plan around Victoria Park station, and UrbanToronto reports proposals including 12 and 35 storeys at 777 Victoria Park Avenue, a 36-storey tower at 3130 Danforth Avenue and two towers at 507–513 Victoria Park Avenue. More housing and retail near the station tends to help the established buildings that already sit on it.

What Crescent Town costs

Crescent Town is one of the most affordable ways I know to own a condominium on the subway in Toronto. There are 27 suites listed for sale as I write, and the current asking prices I reviewed run from $289,000 to $369,000. Six suites are listed for lease.

Monthly fees on those listings range from about $602 to $625, roughly $0.88 per square foot. Remember that hydro, heat, water and cable are inside that figure, so your other monthly bills are mostly internet, insurance and, if you need it, parking.

With so many sales each year, this is one of the few older complexes where the sold data on this page is genuinely useful. Compare suites by floor, view and whether they have been renovated, because the spread between a dated suite and an updated one is the main thing that moves price here. My building sold report breaks that down.

Building specifications

Amenities at Crescent Town

For a 1970s complex the list is broad: a staffed front desk, an indoor pool, a games room, bike storage, a car wash bay and BBQs. Add the Crescent Town Club next door and the elevated walkway to the subway, and you get more day-to-day convenience than the price suggests.

Jatin’s honest take on Crescent Town

Crescent Town — 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.