80 Mill Street Condos: A Rack House Facade at Mill and Cherry

80 Mill Street went up before the Distillery District was the Distillery District. When Davies Smith built it, the Gooderham and Worts lands across the street had only just stopped making whisky, and the brick rack house worked into its south and west walls was a storage shed, not a tourist backdrop. Twenty-odd years later, the neighbourhood has grown up around it, and that is the reason to look here. I’m Jatin Dua, RE/MAX Quantum Realty.

Built into a piece of the old distillery

The detail most buyers miss is in the walls. According to the City of Toronto, 80 Mill integrates part of a former distillery structure, Rack House H, into its south and west facades. Its neighbour at 70 Mill does the same with Rack House I. So the brick you see at street level is not a new veneer chosen to match the district; it is a surviving piece of the Gooderham and Worts complex.

That complex is worth understanding. Heritage Toronto describes more than 40 buildings put up between 1859 and 1900, once the largest distillery of its kind in North America, with the last production in 1990. The site was bought in 2001 by the group that turned it into today’s pedestrian district of shops, galleries and restaurants.

80 Mill and its two Davies Smith siblings, 70 Mill and 39 Parliament, were built under a 1994 City planning framework for the Gooderham and Worts lands. In other words, this is the first generation of housing here, older and lower than the towers that followed.

Mid-rise scale and a wide spread of suite sizes

At roughly 13 or 14 storeys, depending on whose count you use, 80 Mill is a mid-rise in a district that now has 30- and 40-storey towers to the south. That matters for how it feels. Floors are smaller, elevators are less crowded, and you are closer to the street and the Distillery lanes than you would be at the top of Pure Spirit or Clear Spirit.

Suites run from about 501 square feet to just over 2,000, so the building spans everything from a compact one-bedroom to suites large enough for a family or a downsizer leaving a house. That range is wider than most newer buildings nearby, which lean heavily on small one-bedrooms.

I have not found a reliable source for ceiling heights, architect or exact floor plans, so I will not guess. Walk the suite, measure it, and ask for the condominium plan rather than relying on any listing description.

A fee that covers hydro, and a question about parking

The fee inclusions here are unusually broad for Toronto: common elements, heat, hydro, air conditioning, building insurance and water. Hydro in particular is rarely bundled in buildings of this age, and it means your monthly cost is close to all-in apart from internet, tenant insurance and property tax.

Parking is a different story. condos.ca shows a parking garage and visitor parking, but parking is not on its list of fee inclusions. Before you compare fees with 70 Mill or 39 Parliament, both of which list parking as included, confirm whether the suite you are buying has a space, whether it is owned or rented, and what it costs.

Bundled hydro has a trade-off too. Light users subsidise heavy ones, and the corporation carries the risk of rising electricity rates. Ask how utility costs have trended in the budget and whether the board has looked at sub-metering.

Mill and Cherry, day to day

The corner is the quiet side of the Distillery. Most visitor traffic runs along the lanes to the south and west, and the Young Centre for the Performing Arts sits at the southwest corner of Mill and Cherry. On busy weekends and during the winter market season, though, expect crowds and traffic on Mill Street itself.

Across Cherry Street, the West Don Lands have filled in since this building opened. The former athletes’ village for the 2015 Pan Am Games is now the Canary District, and new mid-rise buildings and parkland have replaced what the City described in 2012 as vacant and derelict industrial land. Corktown’s older streets are a short walk north.

Change is still coming. The Rack House D site at Trinity and Mill, a few doors west, has seen several high-rise proposals, most recently a 31-storey hotel submitted at the end of 2019. Check the current status before you buy if views or construction noise matter to you. The panel on this page covers transit, schools and walkability.

What 80 Mill costs next to the newer Distillery towers

condos.ca puts the building’s average at about $799 per square foot. That is a clear discount to the newer towers a short walk away: Pure Spirit and Clear Spirit both sit at about $891, and The Gooderham at 390 Cherry at about $906. It is close to the Canary District buildings across Cherry, which run from about $850 to $864.

Against its own siblings, 80 Mill sits above Lindenwood at 70 Mill (about $734) and Parliament Square at 39 Parliament (about $703). Part of that gap is age, since 80 Mill is the newest of the three, and part may be suite mix. Remember that the others include parking in the fee, so compare total monthly cost, not just the price per foot.

At the time of writing there were no suites listed for sale and one listed for rent. With 144 suites and thin listing activity, a single unusual sale can move the average, so I price here using the building’s own sales history alongside 70 Mill and 39 Parliament. For aggregate sold figures, see my building sold report.

Building specifications

Amenities at 80 Mill Street Condos

The amenity list is modest: a rooftop deck, party and meeting rooms and a garage, with no pool and no gym listed on condos.ca. For many owners the Distillery lanes, the Canary District parkland and the waterfront do the job a big amenity floor would do, and the corporation is not paying to run a pool.

Jatin’s honest take on 80 Mill Street Condos

80 Mill Street Condos — frequently asked questions

Looking at St. Lawrence, the Financial District and Downtown Yonge more broadly? Start with my Toronto community guide — the neighbourhoods, what each pocket is like, and how they compare.