897 Adelaide Street Townhouses: A 1989 Enclave Between King and Queen

The 897 Adelaide Street Townhouses are what I show buyers who want to live between Trinity Bellwoods and King West without a lobby, an elevator or a tower over their heads. It is a 1989 complex of 56 condominium townhouses spread along Adelaide, Massey, Crawford and Shank Streets, and it has outlasted most of the industrial landscape that surrounded it when it went up. It is also more complicated to buy into than it looks from the sidewalk. I’m Jatin Dua, RE/MAX Quantum Realty.

Two corporations, one enclave

The first thing to understand is that this complex has a twin. Immediately west, the 32 Shank Townhouses at 901 to 921 Adelaide Street West, with homes on Shaw, Shank and Crawford, form a second corporation, MTCC-854, registered in December 1989 with 70 units. Together the two make up roughly 126 townhouses on a few short blocks, and some listing sites market them together under the Copperfield name.

They look like one development and they share a property manager, Best Practices Property Management, but they are separate legal entities. Each has its own board, its own budget, its own reserve fund and its own rules. A status certificate from one tells you nothing binding about the other.

That matters when you compare listings. A two-bedroom on Crawford Street might belong to either corporation depending on its civic number, and the fee, the reserve fund position and the parking arrangement can all differ. Before you write an offer, confirm which corporation the home is in and pull that corporation’s documents.

What the A, B, C and D addresses tell you

Look at the address range and you will see suffixes running from A to D, such as the 8A to 10D numbers on Shank Street. Several homes sharing one civic number is the standard pattern for stacked or back-to-back townhouses from this era, where one front door may lead up to an upper unit and another to a lower one.

Condos.ca records the complex as two storeys. That is the height of the buildings, not necessarily the layout of each home, so ask the listing agent exactly how the unit you are viewing is configured: which floors it occupies, who lives above or below, and which walls are shared. Exposures, natural light and sound transmission all follow from that answer.

No amenities are recorded for this corporation, and that includes parking. The twin corporation next door lists an underground parking garage and visitor parking, but you should not assume the same applies here. If a parking space matters to you, ask whether one is attached to the unit, whether it is owned or exclusive-use, and where it is.

Built as the Massey-Harris era ended

A block south, on King Street West, stands the former head office of Massey-Harris, the farm-implement maker whose factory complex occupied this part of the city from the 1870s until the 1980s. The plant closed in October 1982, the lands were rezoned with residential uses allowed north of King, and the head office became the Massey Harris Lofts in 2003. The City designated it a heritage building in 2008.

These townhouses date from that period of transition, and one of the streets they front carries the Massey name. I could not confirm from the records I checked whether the complex sits on former Massey-Harris land, so treat that as local colour rather than history. What is clear is that in 1989 this was an industrial edge, and today it is one of the more settled residential pockets between Queen and King.

The small Massey Harris Park sits next to the old head office, which gives the immediate area a patch of green between the townhouses and King Street.

Daily life between King West and Trinity Bellwoods

You are a short walk south of Queen Street West and Trinity Bellwoods Park, and just north of the restaurants and offices of King West, with Liberty Village beyond. The side streets themselves are quiet. That combination, a residential street with a front door, minutes from two of the city’s busiest strips, is what people pay for here.

The area is still changing. At the northeast corner of King Street West and Strachan Avenue, Intentional Capital has a 14-storey, 192-unit building called 950 King West in pre-construction, designed by Sweeny &Co Architects. When it proceeds, expect a construction site within a few minutes’ walk for a couple of years, and more people on King afterwards.

Transit, schools, parks and the walkability scores for this address are in the data panel on this page.

Pricing a 1989 townhouse in a two-corporation enclave

There was one active listing when I checked, and I do not quote single listings. Condos.ca does not publish a building average per square foot for this complex, and with 56 homes and few trades in any year, an average would be thin anyway.

The fairest comparables are the 32 Shank Townhouses next door, adjusted for differences in fee, parking and corporation finances, then other condominium townhouses and freehold row houses in Trinity Bellwoods and King West. A stacked townhouse here will usually trade below a freehold house of similar size, because you share walls and pay a monthly fee, and above a condo apartment, because you get your own entrance and no elevator.

Fee inclusions are not published, so work out the fee per square foot yourself once you have the unit size, and ask which utilities are on separate meters. Water, heat and parking are the usual swing items in a townhouse fee. My building sold report can pull recent aggregate trades for both corporations.

Building specifications

Amenities at 897 Adelaide Street Townhouses

No shared amenities are recorded for this corporation, which is normal for a townhouse complex of this age. Your outdoor space, your gym and your social life are Trinity Bellwoods, Queen West and King West, and you are not funding facilities you do not use.

Jatin’s honest take on 897 Adelaide Street Townhouses

897 Adelaide Street Townhouses — frequently asked questions

Looking at Queen West, Trinity-Bellwoods, Kensington and Little Italy more broadly? Start with my Toronto community guide — the neighbourhoods, what each pocket is like, and how they compare.