33 Jackes Ave: 28 House-Sized Suites Above the Rosehill Reservoir

33 Jackes Avenue is the kind of building people who are leaving a Rosedale or Moore Park house actually consider. There are only 28 suites across nine floors, so many of them are the size of a house, and the building still runs a pool, a concierge and valet-style parking for that small group of owners. It rarely has anything for sale, which is the first thing you need to know about it. I’m Jatin Dua, RE/MAX Quantum Realty.

Twenty-eight suites, nine floors

Do the arithmetic and the character of the building is obvious. Twenty-eight suites over nine floors works out to roughly three homes per floor, and fewer on the levels where suites have been laid out as full floors or very large corners. That is a very different product from a midtown tower with fifteen suites per corridor.

The best-documented example is a two-bedroom, three-bathroom suite of about 4,000 square feet that Toronto Life featured. It had direct elevator access, a terrace of roughly 1,100 square feet looking toward downtown, a second terrace facing the reservoir, two parking spaces and two lockers. Not every suite is that large, but it shows what the building was designed to do: replace a house, not a starter apartment.

Large suites in a late-1980s building are usually a mix of original and heavily renovated interiors. Two suites with the same floor plan can be completely different homes depending on when the kitchens, bathrooms, windows and flooring were last redone, and in a building like this the renovation history often moves value as much as the floor does. Ask for a list of the work done and, where possible, the permits behind it.

I could not find a published architect or developer for the building, and the condos.ca profile leaves the developer blank. If design pedigree matters to you, ask the listing agent or check the original declaration in the status certificate package.

A full-service building for a small group of owners

For 28 households, the amenity list is long. The building profile records a concierge, an indoor pool, a sauna, a gym, a recreation room, a car wash and visitor parking, and the Toronto Life feature describes valet parking and a 24-hour concierge.

That is the appeal and the cost. A pool in a building this size is shared by very few people, so it is quiet. It is also maintained by very few people, which means the pool, the mechanical plant and the staffing are split across 28 fee shares instead of 300. That is why the fees here look high per suite even though they cover a lot.

The upside of a small corporation is that owners tend to know each other and decisions get made by people who live there. The downside is that one large repair lands on a small group. In a 1989 building, that is the question to ask before you fall for the terrace.

Jackes Avenue, between Yonge and the reservoir

Jackes Avenue is a short street running east off Yonge just south of St. Clair. It ends at the edge of the Rosehill Reservoir and David A. Balfour Park, which is why suites on the east and north sides of the building look over green space instead of other towers. One of the terraces in the Toronto Life feature faced the reservoir directly.

Daily life here is Yonge and St. Clair: groceries, cafes, banks and restaurants at the top of the street, with the quieter residential streets of Moore Park and Summerhill around you. The data panel on this page shows transit, Walk Score and the nearby food and parks.

The street is changing. Lifetime Developments has proposed redeveloping its own building at 49 Jackes Avenue. The 2020 proposal reported by UrbanToronto was a 29-storey tower designed by Hariri Pontarini, while UrbanToronto’s project database now lists a 19-storey, 162-unit version by Turner Fleischer, still at the pre-construction stage. Number Nine Jackes and The Jack sit at the Yonge end of the street. If you are buying here for the view or the quiet, look at the latest City of Toronto application for 49 Jackes and understand what it would mean for your sightlines and for construction on the street.

Pricing and what the fee buys

There were no active listings in the building when I wrote this, which is normal. With 28 suites, a year can pass with only one or two sales, and each one is close to a one-off because sizes, terraces and renovations vary so much. The automatic panel on this page shows recent aggregate sale and lease data where there is enough of it to publish.

When you compare fees, compare them against what they include. Here the fee covers common elements, building insurance, parking, water and cable TV, and it also carries a staffed lobby and a pool. Heat and hydro are not listed as included, so ask how each suite is heated and what the owner’s utility bills run.

For a suite of this size, the right comparison is often not another condo but the house you would otherwise buy: the property tax, insurance, snow clearing, roof and furnace you would carry yourself. Many of my downsizing clients find the condo fee easier to accept once they put it beside those costs.

If you want to know when a suite comes up, or what one is likely worth, book a call. In a building this small, that conversation is more useful than a building average.

Building specifications

Amenities at 33 Jackes Condos

A staffed lobby, a pool and sauna, and a car wash shared by 28 households is a hotel-style package with very little crowding. The trade-off is that those owners also share the cost of keeping it all running.

Jatin’s honest take on 33 Jackes Condos

33 Jackes Condos — 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.