Reina vs The Tailor: 689 or 1195 The Queensway?

Published 30 August 2026 · Jatin Dua, Broker of Record, RE/MAX Quantum Realty

Side by side

The row that matters is suites per floor. Reina puts 200 suites into 9 floors; The Tailor puts 142 into 11. Roughly 22 doors per floor against 13. It shows up in corridor noise, elevator waits on a Saturday morning, and how many people share the gym at 7pm. Neither is wrong — but if you have lived with 25 units on your floor and hated it, read that row twice.

Location is the real decision

Reina at 689 sits inside the walkable cluster that runs roughly 620 to 960 The Queensway — Mamma Martino’s at 624, Posticino at 755, Ragu at 934, plus the dentists, groomers, salons and cafés packed into that stretch. You can live at Reina without starting the car most days.

The Tailor at 1195 is a different proposition. You are closer to Kipling, to the Cineplex site at 1025 and the Kipling Queensway Mall at 1255, and to the big-box retail. Longo’s at 1055 is a genuine walk-to grocery run. But the independent cluster is now a bus ride or a fifteen-minute walk.

Reina is the walk-to-dinner building. The Tailor is the drive-to-Costco building. Both legitimate. Not the same lifestyle.

Transit, honestly

Neither is walking distance to a subway, and you should be suspicious of anyone implying otherwise. The 80 Queensway bus serves both. From Reina you are closer to Park Lawn and Humber Bay; from The Tailor you are closer to Kipling Station on Line 2, still a bus connection rather than a walk. If a short subway commute is your top priority, neither is your building and I would rather say so now.

What I would ask before choosing

• Actual suites-per-floor on your floor, not the building average. Podium and upper floors differ.
• What the maintenance fee covers, and whether hydro and water are separately metered. On this corridor they usually are, and the quoted per-square-foot figure routinely leaves it out.
• The Cineplex site at 1025. It is an approved masterplan. Buying at The Tailor means buying near a large future construction site for several years.

My read

End user who wants to walk to dinner and use the car twice a week: Reina, despite the higher density — the location does more for daily life than nine fewer neighbours on your floor.

Drives anyway, wants a quieter floor, values the malls and the 427: The Tailor, and the lower unit count is a genuine advantage.

What I would not do is choose on the rendering. They photograph almost identically.

How to compare two buildings properly

These sit at different points along the corridor, so the first thing to establish is what the walk from each front door actually looks like — to groceries, to coffee, to transit — because walkability here varies block to block rather than being a property of the street as a whole.

Buyers comparing two buildings on the same street almost always compare the wrong things — lobby finishes, amenity lists and the headline maintenance fee. None of those decide whether the purchase works out. Six things do.

1. The reserve fund against the age of the corporation. Both of these buildings are young enough that the fund is still accumulating and the budget has not been tested by a full operating cycle. Ask whether the first reserve fund study update has happened and what it did to the required contribution.
2. What each fee includes, and what is separately metered. Add your own estimated utility bills to whichever excludes them before comparing. Then divide by real usable square footage rather than the marketing number.
3. Three years of fee history for each. A young building whose fees have already jumped twice is telling you something the current number is not.
4. Whether the corporation is party to litigation. Construction deficiency claims are not unusual in newer corporations and they affect both fees and lender appetite.
5. Parking and locker ownership form. An owned unit, an exclusive-use common element, or a rental — only the first two convey with the sale.
6. What is proposed on the adjacent parcels. The corridor is still developing. The City of Toronto’s development application records are public, and a view or a quiet aspect that a filed application would remove is not something to pay for today.

And then the unit, not the building

Once the corporations are understood, the remaining variables are unit-level and they are the ones that move price most: exposure, floor, whether the outlook is protected, layout efficiency and whether every bedroom has a real exterior window, balcony depth, and where the unit sits relative to the elevators and the garbage chute. Two units with the same floor plan in the same building can differ substantially on these alone.

The status certificate answers the corporation questions definitively and the fee for it is capped at $100 including taxes under the Condominium Act, 1998. Order one for whichever building you choose, and have a lawyer read it — with ten to fifteen business days on the condition, because the corporation has statutory time to produce it.

Frequently asked questions

Sources

• City of Toronto — Planning and Development — current and proposed development along The Queensway corridor. Accessed 10 September 2026.
• Toronto Transit Commission — surface routes serving The Queensway and connections to Line 2. Accessed 10 September 2026.
• TRREB Market Watch, August 2026 — the Etobicoke average sale price of $1,049,793 across 243 sales. Accessed 10 September 2026.
• Condominium Act, 1998 — status certificates and the prescribed fee cap, reserve funds and reserve fund studies. Accessed 10 September 2026.

Related reading

• Reina Condos, 689 The Queensway — the full building guide
• The Tailor Residences, 1195 The Queensway — the full building guide
• 1025 The Queensway — the Cineplex site masterplan
• The best-rated restaurants on The Queensway

Building specifications from the City of Toronto planning record, condominium registrations and developers’ published material — believed accurate but not guaranteed. Verify everything against the status certificate and disclosure statement before you sign. Not intended to solicit buyers or sellers under contract with another brokerage. E.&O.E.