15 McMurrich St: Cadillac Fairview’s 1981 Tower With Big, Quiet Suites

15 McMurrich Street is the building I suggest to buyers who want the size of an older suite and the location of Yorkville without paying Bloor Street prices. It is a 1981 Cadillac Fairview tower on a short side street north of Davenport, with 103 suites, a 24-hour concierge and a fee that covers most of your utilities. It is also more than 40 years old, so the reserve fund is the real story. I’m Jatin Dua, RE/MAX Quantum Realty.

Part of a larger Cadillac Fairview site

This building was one piece of a bigger plan. Cadillac Fairview developed it alongside neighbouring buildings, and a detailed listing description from Urbaneer explains that 15 McMurrich shares its site with 18 Davenport and the 800 and 900 Yonge buildings. The buildings share an underground garage and a landscaped outdoor terrace on a common podium.

That shared arrangement is worth understanding before you buy. It usually means shared cost agreements between the corporations for the garage, the terrace and related systems. Ask for those agreements with the status certificate, and look at how costs are split and how repairs to shared parts are decided.

Dietrick Boecker and Northgrave Architect Inc. are credited as architects in the Architectural Conservancy Ontario record, with Belmont Construction as builder.

Suites sized for living, on a quiet side street

The building has 103 suites over 15 storeys, which is a modest count for the height. Urbaneer’s listing describes the suites as generous and well proportioned, and the current listings are two-bedroom-plus-den and three-bedroom suites. This is a building for people who want room, not for investors chasing studios.

McMurrich is a short side street, so you get a quieter address than Yonge, Bay or Davenport while still being a few minutes on foot from Yorkville and the shops along Yonge. The data panel on this page covers transit and walkability.

Suites in a building of this age range from carefully renovated to largely original. A large suite with an original kitchen and bathrooms can need a serious budget to update, so get a contractor’s estimate before you firm up, and check the corporation’s rules on renovations, flooring and noise before you plan the work.

The same listing notes that most suites are owner-occupied. That tends to show in how a building is kept and how decisions are made, and you can test it yourself by reading recent board minutes.

Fees that cover heating, cooling and parking

Building profiles list the fee as covering air conditioning, common elements, heat, building insurance, parking and water. One detailed listing description goes further and says hydro is included too. The sources conflict, so confirm in the status certificate whether hydro is in the fee before you compare monthly costs.

Either way, this is an inclusive fee. With heating, cooling and parking in the common charges, the fee looks high next to a newer tower, but your total monthly cost may not be. Add back what you would pay for those items elsewhere before you compare.

The two suites for sale at the time of writing carried fees of roughly $1,760 to $2,550 a month. On large suites, that is a real number, and it is why the reserve fund study and the budget matter so much here.

An inclusive fee also means the corporation, not you, pays to run and eventually replace the central heating and cooling equipment. In a building now more than 40 years old, that equipment, along with windows and elevators, is where the large future costs sit. A well-funded reserve covers them; an underfunded one passes them to owners through fee increases or special assessments.

Parking, storage and the amenity floor

Parking is in the shared underground garage, with levels B1 to B3 and a visitor level, and spaces assigned to suites. Bicycle storage sits below the second-floor podium. Confirm which space and locker come with the suite you are buying, because in a shared garage that detail matters.

The amenities are practical: a 24-hour concierge, a sauna, an exercise room, a party room with a catering kitchen and bar, a library and a card room, plus the shared outdoor terrace. The lobby has been renovated, which is a good sign that the corporation is investing in the building rather than just maintaining it.

The terrace is reached from the second floor or by a walk-up from the visitor parking level, according to the Urbaneer listing. Because it is shared with the neighbouring buildings, ask how its use and upkeep are managed between the corporations.

Large suites at a price between the neighbours

Two suites were for sale when I wrote this, both asking about $1.15 million, for. There is no reliable building-wide price per square foot for 15 McMurrich in the data I use, so I would anchor on recent closed sales and on nearby buildings.

Nearby, The Residences of 900 Yonge averages about $679 per square foot and McMurrich Residences at 77 McMurrich, a 2003 building, about $967. Across the Annex buildings I track, the median building average is about $970. Older, inclusive-fee buildings with large suites usually sit in the lower part of that range, and condition makes a large difference.

When you run the numbers, divide the fee by the suite size and subtract what the fee covers that a newer building would bill separately. My building sold report shows what has actually closed here.

Building specifications

Amenities at 15 McMurrich St

There is no pool, but there is staff at the door around the clock and a set of rooms for hosting. The shared terrace gives you outdoor space that many towers at this price do not have. The library and card room are the kind of quiet shared spaces that suit the building’s mostly owner-occupied, settled character.

Jatin’s honest take on 15 McMurrich St

15 McMurrich St — frequently asked questions

Looking at Yorkville, the Annex and Midtown more broadly? Start with my Toronto community guide — the neighbourhoods, what each pocket is like, and how they compare.