90 Niagara, 90 Niagara St: 43 Two-Storey Suites off King and Bathurst

90 Niagara is what I point to when a buyer tells me they want King West without a tower. It is a low, quiet building of two-storey suites on a side street that still has bay-and-gable houses and old brick warehouses facing it, a few minutes from King and Bathurst. The trade-off is that you get very little building around you, and that is exactly the point. I’m Jatin Dua, RE/MAX Quantum Realty.

A boutique building that replaced a City office

Before 90 Niagara, the site held a single-storey City of Toronto corporate services building. Fieldgate briefly used it as the presentation centre, then cleared the site in 2015. Shoring and excavation did not begin until early 2017, and by mid-2018 the structure was up and waiting for cladding, with occupancy and registration in 2019.

The architect is Giannone Petricone Associates, a Toronto firm better known for restaurants, retail and mid-rise work than for large towers. That background shows in the scale. This is a building designed to sit politely on a residential-feeling street, not to announce itself.

Sources disagree slightly on size. UrbanToronto reported 5 storeys and 45 units during construction, while condos.ca now lists 4 storeys and 43 suites. The difference is likely how the two-storey suites and townhomes are counted, but confirm the exact suite count in the status certificate if it matters to you.

Two-storey suites and street-facing towns

The defining feature is format. UrbanToronto described the project as 45 two-storey condominium and townhome units, which means most owners here live on two levels rather than on a single floor off a long corridor. Suites run from roughly 526 to 1,277 sq ft.

A two-level layout at 600 or 700 sq ft lives differently from a flat of the same size. You get separation between living and sleeping, and usually more height and window area in the main room. You also get a staircase inside a small home, which eats floor area and does not suit everyone.

When you tour, look at where the stairs land, how much usable floor space is left in the smaller plans, and whether the bedroom level gets its own natural light. In buildings like this, two suites with the same square footage can feel very different.

Living on Niagara Street

Niagara Street west of Bathurst is quieter than its location suggests. Across the road are bay-and-gable houses and heritage brick warehouses, so the street has a residential, older-Toronto feel even though King West restaurants and offices are a short walk north and east.

On foot you can reach the King West and Queen West strips, the Entertainment District and, a little further, the Financial District. The waterfront and the parks along Fort York sit to the south. The automatic panel on this page covers transit and walkability in detail.

The trade-off of a side street is that you are a block or two from everything rather than on top of it. For most buyers I work with, that is the appeal: you go home to a quiet street and walk out to the busy one.

Owning in a small, low-amenity corporation

With roughly 43 to 45 suites, decisions here are made by a small group of owners, and your vote matters. FirstService Residential is listed as manager, which gives the corporation the backing of a large firm, but a building this size still depends on an engaged board.

The developer kept amenities minimal on purpose, with a party room and an outdoor terrace in the original plans, and argued this would keep fees well below a high-rise. That logic generally holds, but small buildings spread every roof, garage and elevator repair across fewer owners. Read the reserve fund study with that in mind.

A building registered in 2019 is also still in its first reserve fund cycle. The early studies are often optimistic, and the first full update can reset contributions upward. Ask when the last study was done, what it forecasts for fee increases over the next five years, and whether the board has followed its recommendations.

Finally, a small building means a thin market. When only a few suites trade in a year, both buyers and sellers have less to anchor on, and pricing depends heavily on the specific layout, floor and outdoor space. That is not a reason to avoid it, but it is a reason to buy carefully and plan to hold.

What 90 Niagara costs per square foot

Condos.ca puts the building average around $753 per square foot. For a 2019 building a few minutes from King and Bathurst, that is lower than I would expect, and I would treat it with caution. Small buildings have few trades, and an average built on a handful of sales, or on larger suites, can move a lot.

There were no active listings recorded when I reviewed the building, so I cannot give you a current asking range. Condos.ca also does not list what the maintenance fee includes here. Before you write an offer, get the current fee schedule and confirm what it covers, particularly heat, water and parking.

If you want a reliable read on value, ask me for the recent sale data. In a building this small, I would compare it against both the King West towers and the low-rise stock in Niagara and Liberty Village rather than relying on the building average alone. You can book a call and I will pull it.

Building specifications

Amenities at 90 Niagara

There is no gym, pool or concierge here, and that was deliberate. You are buying a quiet home and a smaller fee base, and you rely on the gyms, cafés and parks of King West and the waterfront for everything else.

Jatin’s honest take on 90 Niagara

90 Niagara — 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.