Art Condos, 8 Dovercourt Rd: Skylofts, Live/Work Suites, Heat in the Fee

Art Condos is what happens when a developer actually means the name. The 2013 building at Dovercourt and Sudbury has hand-set coloured tile in its precast frame, a rotating art program on screens in every hallway, and suite types you rarely see in a mid-size building, from street-level live/work lofts to two-storey Skylofts at the top. Under the concept, it is also a well-run fee structure that includes heat and parking. I’m Jatin Dua, RE/MAX Quantum Realty.

A building designed around an art program

Triangle West Developments, led by an artist-turned-developer, built Art Condos on a former industrial site in what planners call the Queen West Triangle, the wedge between Queen Street, Dovercourt Road and the rail corridor. Oleson Worland Architects designed it with the area’s rail and warehouse past in mind.

You can see that in the details. Coloured tiles were hand-inlaid into the precast concrete columns and beams, the laneway side carries a four-storey mural, and the lobby was finished like a gallery, with polished concrete, track lighting and a wall left blank for projected art. A curated reel of more than 5,200 images and video clips, assembled by the artist and critic Gary Michael Dault, plays on screens in the lobby and outside the elevators on each floor.

Inside the suites, the developer added ceiling projector mounts and conduit for cables, so a wall can become a screen. It is a gimmick if you never use it, but it shows a building that was thought through for people who care about how a space looks.

Live/work lofts, Skylofts and small suites

The suite mix is unusually broad for an 11-storey building. At street level there are live/work lofts with their own exterior entrances. Near the top there are two-level Skyloft townhouse suites. In between, most units are conventional one- and two-bedroom plans with floor-to-ceiling glass, glazed bays and balconies.

Condos.ca puts suite sizes between about 236 and 1,571 square feet. The bottom of that range is a very small studio, and the top is a large Skyloft. Current listings sit in the 600 to 699 square foot band, which is the core of the building.

The live/work lofts deserve a careful look if you plan to run a business from home. A separate street door is a real advantage for a studio, a small practice or a client-facing office, but what you may do there depends on the declaration and the zoning, not on the listing description. Get the permitted uses in writing before you count on them.

The suite count is not consistent across sources. Condos.ca lists 153, a 2013 UrbanToronto tour gave 148, the architect’s project page says 152, and a loft-specialist site gives both 150 and 143. Whatever the exact figure, it is a mid-size building with a manageable number of neighbours.

Fees that include heat and parking

Condos.ca lists common elements, heat, air conditioning, building insurance, parking and water in the fee. On the two current listings the fee works out to about $0.85 per square foot a month, roughly $530 to $575 for a 600-something square foot suite.

That is a strong inclusion package for a 2013 building. Many towers of this vintage meter heating and cooling to each suite and charge separately for parking. Here, the main utility you add is hydro, which keeps winter budgets predictable.

The building was also an early adopter of electric-vehicle charging; a 2013 report described charging stations in the garage as among the first in a Toronto condo, and a green roof was part of the design. Ask how the EV chargers are metered and billed today, since rules and equipment have changed a great deal since then.

Dovercourt and Sudbury, south of Queen

The building fronts Sudbury Street at Dovercourt, just south of Queen Street West’s gallery and restaurant strip. You are close enough to walk to everything on Queen and Ossington, but slightly off the main street, which helps with noise.

The Queen West Triangle has filled in with condos since this building went up, so expect a dense, newer neighbourhood around you rather than the warehouses that were here before. Upper floors face the downtown skyline to the east and north. Transit, parks and food options are in the panel on this page.

Sudbury Street itself was slated for a widened sidewalk and street furniture when the building opened, part of the public realm work tied to the Triangle’s redevelopment. Walk it before you buy, and look at what is planned for the remaining open lots nearby, because construction next door is part of life in a neighbourhood that is still filling in.

What Art Condos costs

Condos.ca shows a building average of about $875 per square foot. For a 2013 boutique building with parking and heat in the fee, that is a reasonable level, and a useful benchmark when you compare it with newer buildings in the Queen West Triangle where parking is usually extra.

At the time of writing there were two suites for sale, both in the 600 to 699 square foot band asking between about $550,000 and $599,000. Their monthly fees ran from about $530 to $575, including parking and heat.

Unusual units such as the Skylofts and the street-level live/work suites trade less often and are harder to compare. If you are looking at one of those, I would build the comparison from the building’s own history; my building sold report pulls that together.

Building specifications

Amenities at Art Condos

For a building of about 150 suites, the package is generous: a gym, a theatre-style media room, a lounge with a fireplace and catering kitchen, and a terrace with a hot tub and barbecues, plus a rooftop terrace and concierge. Amenity spaces double as display space for the art program, which gives them more character than most.

Jatin’s honest take on Art Condos

Art Condos — 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.