15 Foundry Townhouses, 7-15 Foundry Ave: Rooftop Decks in Davenport Village

15 Foundry is what I show buyers who want outdoor space in the west end and are tired of tiny balconies. It is an 88-home townhouse condominium from 2015 on Foundry Avenue, just north of Dupont and west of Lansdowne, with rooftop decks and underground parking. Homes rarely come up for sale here, which tells you something on its own. I’m Jatin Dua, RE/MAX Quantum Realty.

Built on the old General Electric lands

Foundry Avenue’s name is a clue. The land north of Dupont and west of Lansdowne was industrial for most of the twentieth century. A City of Toronto planning report notes that General Electric Canada bought land at Lansdowne and Dupont in 1902 and made electrical components and transformers there from 1904 until 1981.

After the plants closed, the city set out a Davenport Village Secondary Plan for the area, approved by Council in 2006. The former industrial block, bounded by Lansdowne to the east, Dupont to the south, Davenport Road to the north and the rail tracks to the west, has since been rebuilt in phases as townhouses, lofts and towers, with UrbanToronto reporting a target of more than 4,000 homes. 15 Foundry is one of the townhouse pieces, registered in mid-2015.

That history matters for one practical reason: everything here is new construction on reclaimed land, so you are not buying into a converted building with century-old bones. The trade-off is that the streets feel planned rather than organic, and some of the surrounding blocks are still filling in.

The neighbours tell the story. Electric City and Upside Down Condos were early phases, The Brownstones townhomes and the Foundry Lofts sit north of Dupont, and the two Fuse towers at the north-west corner of Dupont and Lansdowne, built around a retained brick warehouse, were planned with a grocery store, a pharmacy and a bank at their base. For a townhouse owner, that means daily errands are a short walk away without living above them.

The rooftop deck is the point

Condos.ca records the complex as two storeys with a rooftop deck, an underground garage, visitor parking and permission for barbecues. In a townhouse condo, a rooftop deck and the right to grill are the features that separate it from a tower suite with a narrow balcony.

I could not confirm from a reliable source whether every home has its own private rooftop terrace or whether some decks are shared, and I could not confirm the builder or the suite sizes. Ask for the floor plan, and make sure the deck you are paying for is exclusive-use common element on the status certificate, not just a space you have been using.

Rooftop decks also need maintenance. The roofing membrane under a deck is one of the more expensive items in a townhouse reserve fund, and responsibility for the deck surface versus the roof below it varies between corporations. The declaration and the reserve fund study will spell out who pays for what.

88 homes is a good size for a townhouse corporation

At 88 homes, this is large enough to spread the cost of the garage and roofs across a reasonable number of owners, and small enough that owners tend to know each other and the board. That is a better balance than a 20-home complex, where one big repair hits everyone hard.

The building is about 11 years old. In my experience, that is when the first round of caulking, sealant and membrane work starts showing up in reserve fund studies, along with the garage’s traffic coating. None of that is a red flag; it is just what you should expect to see in the plan.

Living here day to day

Foundry Avenue is a quiet internal street, so traffic noise is lower than on Dupont or Lansdowne. The rail corridor along the western edge of Davenport Village is the main source of noise, and how much you hear depends on where in the complex a home sits. Visit in the evening and listen before you commit.

The neighbourhood is still maturing. Trees are young, and much of the street life is concentrated at the Dupont and Lansdowne corner rather than spread through the blocks. If you want an established main street, Bloor and Lansdowne to the south and the Junction Triangle to the west give you more. The data panel shows transit, schools and parks nearby.

Pricing: a market with almost no supply

There are no homes listed for sale at the time of writing and two listed for rent. With supply this thin, I do not have enough active listings to give you a fair asking range, and I would not trust a per-square-foot figure built on one or two old sales.

The 12-month sold data in the panel is the place to start. Beyond that, the useful comparables are other townhouse condos in Davenport Village and around Dupont and Lansdowne, rather than the Fuse towers, which are a different product with different fees and amenities.

Fee inclusions are not something I could verify, so get them from the status certificate. In townhouse corporations, utilities are often metered to each home, which keeps the monthly fee lower but shifts the heating and hydro bills to you. Ask the seller for the last year of utility statements.

When something does come up here, it tends to be priced against what the last resale achieved. If you are serious about this complex, set up an alert and have your financing ready, because the next home may not be listed for long.

Building specifications

Amenities at 15 Foundry Townhouses

There is no gym or concierge; the amenities are the ones you use at home. A rooftop deck where you can barbecue, plus underground parking, is a lifestyle most west-end condo apartments cannot offer at any price.

Jatin’s honest take on 15 Foundry Townhouses

15 Foundry Townhouses — 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.