311 @ Imperial Square, 311 Richmond St E: Small Building, Full Fee Bundle

311 @ Imperial Square is the kind of building I show to buyers who are tired of glass towers with 600 neighbours. It is a 90-suite brick mid-rise from 2001 on Richmond Street East, one half of a two-building Plaza project, and its fee covers more than most newer buildings around it. It will not impress you in the lobby, but it may on the monthly budget. I’m Jatin Dua, RE/MAX Quantum Realty.

One of two Imperial Square buildings, and the smaller of the pair

Imperial Square is a pair of 11-storey buildings by Plaza that registered on the same day in October 2001. This one fronts Richmond Street East and is MTCC-1403 with 90 suites; its sister at 330 Adelaide Street East is MTCC-1404 with 95. They are separate corporations with separate budgets, separate boards and separate reserve funds, so do not assume one building’s finances tell you anything about the other.

That separation matters more than people expect. Two buildings that look alike from the street can age very differently depending on how each board has funded its reserve and handled repairs. If you are comparing a suite here with one around the corner on Adelaide, compare the two status certificates side by side, not just the asking prices.

The building itself is plain: a brick-clad mid-rise that one listing describes as a classic boutique building. It went up in 2001, before the condo wave that later filled this stretch of Richmond and Adelaide with much taller neighbours, so it now sits at a human scale among towers twice or three times its height.

At 90 suites, the corporation is small. That cuts both ways. Each owner has a real voice at the annual meeting and a board is easier to reach, but a large repair is split across fewer households, so the reserve fund has to carry more of the load.

Suites: compact, practical and early-2000s

condos.ca records suites here from about 417 to 946 square feet. That is a range built for singles and couples: studios and one-bedrooms at the small end, one-plus-dens and two-bedrooms toward the top. Nothing here is a family-size suite, and the largest plans are smaller than a typical new two-bedroom-plus-den in a 2020s tower.

What you usually get in a building of this vintage is more usable square footage per foot than in many newer towers, because developers in 2001 were not yet squeezing every plan to the minimum. Kitchens and finishes, on the other hand, will be whatever each owner has done since. Some suites will be renovated, some will be original, and the price gap between them should reflect that.

I could not find a reliable source for ceiling heights or a list of floor plan names, so walk the suite and measure. If a listing calls a unit a loft, check that the ceiling and layout actually support the word; this is a conventional concrete-and-brick mid-rise, not a warehouse conversion.

The daily reality of Richmond and Sherbourne

This is Moss Park, the stretch of downtown east between the St. Lawrence Market district and Corktown. You are a short walk from the market itself, the King East design strip and the Distillery District, and the Gardiner on-ramp at Sherbourne is close for anyone who drives out of the city. Richmond and Adelaide both carry painted bike lanes, which matters if you cycle to work in the core.

The area is changing. The Ontario Line plans a Moss Park station in this part of downtown, and recent listings for this building already market the future stop as a selling point. Construction disruption is part of the deal for the next few years, but finished transit tends to support resale in buildings like this one.

I tell every buyer to walk the block at different times of day and decide for themselves. Moss Park has a real downtown-east character, mixing older low-rise stock, new towers and community services, and the value here comes partly from that mix. Some people love it; others decide it is not for them, and it is better to learn that before you write an offer.

Price per square foot and what the fee buys

condos.ca puts the building’s average at about $672 per square foot. That sits well below what newer towers on King East and in the St. Lawrence area ask, and it reflects both the age of the building and the smaller, simpler amenity package. For a buyer who wants downtown east at a lower entry point, that discount is the whole argument.

The fee is the other half of the story. Heat, air conditioning, building insurance, parking and water are all listed as included, which is a fuller bundle than many newer buildings that put heat and cooling on your own meter and charge separately for parking. Hydro is the main utility left to you, so ask the seller for twelve months of bills.

There was only one suite listed for sale when I checked, so there is no meaningful asking-price range to share here. With only 90 suites, listings are thin in any given month. Use the sold data on this page, and ask me for a building sold report if you need recent comparables before making an offer.

Building specifications

Amenities at 311 @ Imperial Square

This is a small-building amenity package: a rooftop deck with skyline views, a gym, a party room and a meeting room. There is no pool and no concierge desk listed, which is part of why the fee stays reasonable for what it includes; ask how parcels are handled before you buy. A listing also mentions storage lockers, but confirm whether a locker is owned, assigned or rented with the suite you are looking at.

Jatin’s honest take on 311 @ Imperial Square

311 @ Imperial Square — frequently asked questions

Looking at Church–Wellesley, Corktown, Moss Park and Cabbagetown more broadly? Start with my Toronto community guide — the neighbourhoods, what each pocket is like, and how they compare.