Art Shoppe Lofts + Condos, 2131 Yonge St: Rooftop Pool at Yonge-Eglinton

Art Shoppe Lofts + Condos replaced one of midtown’s best-known furniture stores with two buildings, a tower and a shorter loft block, sharing one of the stronger amenity floors near Yonge and Eglinton. It has a rooftop pool, lobbies designed with Karl Lagerfeld and 620 suites, which means plenty of choice and plenty of competition when you sell. I’m Jatin Dua, RE/MAX Quantum Realty.

Two buildings on one block: the Condos and the Lofts

The name describes the layout of the site. The tall building, on the north part of the block, is the condo tower; it steps down on the south side to a 12-storey mid-rise that holds the lofts, with suites from studios to two bedrooms. Condos.ca records the tower at 27 floors, while the original announcement and development records describe 28 storeys, so expect to see both numbers.

Which building you buy in changes the experience more than buyers expect. The tower gives you height and longer views over midtown. The mid-rise is closer to the street and to the neighbouring houses, with fewer suites per floor and a calmer feel. Ask which entrance and elevator bank a suite uses, because the Yonge, Soudan and Hillsdale addresses all belong to this one corporation.

The development took its name from the Art Shoppe, the furniture and design store that occupied this stretch of Yonge for decades. The designers leaned on that history, building the interiors around an art and design theme rather than a generic hotel look.

The Lagerfeld lobbies and a rooftop pool

Freed announced in 2015 that Karl Lagerfeld would design the residential lobbies, which the press at the time called his first major project in Canada. The interior design firm Cecconi Simone carried the amenity floors and lobbies through, and the project later won an interior design award for residential work.

The design is restrained rather than flashy: sparse layouts, classic materials and jewellery-inspired details, including a custom mosaic carpet and light fixtures modelled on a metal necklace. For a resale buyer this matters because finishes that are not trendy age better, and lobbies are among the first things buyers judge.

The amenity that actually changes daily life is the rooftop pool, a long linear pool with city views. Around it the award entry lists a wine room, social lounges, a gym, indoor and outdoor yoga space and a chef’s kitchen. Few buildings near Yonge and Eglinton offer an outdoor pool at height, and it is a clear selling point when you resell.

Suite sizes run from very small to very large

The range here is unusually wide: condos.ca lists suites from about 313 sq ft up to roughly 3,414 sq ft. At the small end you are looking at compact studios and one-bedrooms, designed largely for the investor market of the mid-2010s. At the top end are the larger suites and penthouse-level homes that end users buy.

Most of what comes to market sits in the middle. The active listings when I checked were one-bedrooms under 500 sq ft, a cluster of one-bedroom-plus-dens between about 500 and 699 sq ft and two-bedrooms of 700 to 799 sq ft. In a building this size, those common layouts compete with each other, so floor, view and parking make a real difference to what a suite sells for.

If you are buying a one-plus-den, check whether the den is a true room with a door or an alcove, and whether the suite includes parking. In buildings from this era near Yonge and Eglinton, many small suites were sold without parking, and that affects resale.

Yonge and Soudan: what living here is like

The building sits on the east side of Yonge just south of Eglinton, with Soudan Avenue and Hillsdale Avenue East on either side. Street-level retail wraps the base, and plans for the project included more retail on the second level.

Yonge and Eglinton has spent more than a decade as a construction zone, with the Eglinton Crosstown line and a wave of towers going up around the intersection. That disruption is the cost of living near a major transit and retail hub. If you are sensitive to noise, ask what is planned or under construction on the neighbouring blocks.

The transit, school and walkability details are in the data panel on this page. Day to day, this is a location where a car is optional, and the grocery, coffee and restaurant choice along Yonge between Davisville and Eglinton is one of the deepest in midtown.

What Art Shoppe costs

Condos.ca puts the building average at about $906 per square foot, which is at the higher end for resale near Yonge and Eglinton and reflects the building’s age, the pool and the design. Small suites typically carry a higher price per square foot than large ones, so that average is pulled up by the many compact units.

When I checked, there were 11 suites for sale. The eight I reviewed asked between $418,900 and $679,000, from one-bedrooms under 500 sq ft to two-bedrooms of 700 to 799 sq ft. Fees on those listings averaged about $0.97 per square foot.

That fee is not low for a 2020 building, and it reflects the cost of a rooftop pool, a staffed lobby and a large amenity floor. Condos.ca does not list what the fee includes here, which usually means heat, cooling and hydro are metered to each suite. Get the inclusions and the budget from the status certificate before you compare this fee with an older building that bundles utilities.

Building specifications

Amenities at Art Shoppe Lofts + Condos

The amenity floor is built for people who actually live here, not just for the sales brochure: a pool you can swim in through the summer, a gym and yoga space that can replace a membership, and a chef’s kitchen and wine room for hosting when your suite is too small for a dinner party. Expect to pay for that in the fee.

Jatin’s honest take on Art Shoppe Lofts + Condos

Art Shoppe Lofts + Condos — frequently asked questions

Looking at Yonge & Eglinton, Davisville and North Toronto more broadly? Start with my Toronto community guide — the neighbourhoods, what each pocket is like, and how they compare.