Bloorline Lofts, 284 St Helens Ave: A Low-Rise Mattress Factory Conversion

Bloorline Lofts is the building I point to when a first-time buyer tells me they want a real loft but their budget says condo. It is a low, wide conversion of a former mattress factory on St Helens Avenue, a short walk south of Bloor and Lansdowne, and most of its suites are small. That is the trade: genuine industrial character and a walk-up, townhouse feel, in exchange for limited space and very few amenities. I’m Jatin Dua, RE/MAX Quantum Realty.

A factory turned into small hard lofts

Bloorline started life as a mattress factory. Plaza converted it into a condominium in 2004, and what you get is the bones of the old industrial building, with exposed structure, big factory windows and, in many suites, wood ceilings, paired with modern kitchens and baths.

It is a hard loft in the sense that matters to most of my buyers: the character is in the building itself, not in a developer’s brochure. It is not a soaring warehouse with 14-foot concrete ceilings everywhere. The scale is domestic, and that is part of the appeal.

The building is listed as two storeys, but that understates how the suites work. Published descriptions put the layouts on one to three levels, with sleeping lofts and mezzanines tucked under the roof. If you are looking at a multi-level suite, walk the stairs a few times and think about carrying a mattress up them, because some are steep.

Suite sizes, and the courtyard entries

Condos.ca puts the suite range at about 350 to 1,113 sq ft, and one older description gives 367 to 1,100. Either way, this is a building of small units. Plenty of suites sit in the 500 to 600 sq ft band, which is a one-bedroom or a bachelor with a sleeping loft.

The feature I like most here is that some suites open directly onto an interior courtyard. Coming home through your own door off a courtyard feels much closer to a townhouse than to a condo corridor, and there is no waiting for an elevator because, in a building this low, you mostly will not use one.

The flip side of small and quirky is that resale buyers are a narrower group. A 450 sq ft bachelor with a ladder-style loft suits one kind of person very well and nearly everyone else not at all. Price the layout, not only the square footage.

What the fee covers, and the unit count question

The fee covers common elements, heat, air conditioning, building insurance and water. Having heat and cooling in the fee is the detail that matters most in an old factory with large windows, because your own hydro bill stays modest even in January.

Parking is not listed in the fee, and condos.ca lists visitor parking among the features. Some suites have come with their own space, so confirm whether a particular suite owns or leases parking, and whether there is a locker, before you compare it with another building.

Sources differ on the size of the building. Condos.ca and a rental site list 62 suites, while press descriptions from the years after conversion say 64 lofts. It does not change how the building lives, but it is worth knowing when you read the corporation’s budget, because fees are spread across a small number of owners.

Daily life south of Bloor and Lansdowne

St Helens Avenue is a quiet residential street. Bloor Street West is a few minutes north, with the cafes, bars and everyday shops along the stretch between Lansdowne and Dufferin, and the subway access shown in the panel on this page.

This is a neighbourhood for people who walk, ride and take transit. It is not polished, and the streetscape is a mix of houses, small industrial buildings and newer infill, which is exactly why it has kept a bit of an edge. Buyers who want a doorman and a lobby should look elsewhere.

A low building also changes the daily rhythm in ways people do not expect. Your neighbours are a few dozen households, not a few hundred, so you will get to know faces quickly, and decisions at the board level are made by a small group. That can be a strength when owners are engaged and a weakness when they are not, which is why I always read the board minutes on a building this size.

What Bloorline Lofts costs

When I checked, there was one suite for sale and one for lease, which is typical for a building this small. Listings are scarce, and a single sale can move any per-square-foot average a long way, so I do not lean on a building average here.

A more honest way to value a suite at Bloorline is to compare it with other small hard lofts in the west end on a total monthly cost basis: purchase price, the fee, and what you will pay for hydro and parking. Because heat and air conditioning sit in the fee, the fee can look higher per square foot than a newer glass condo, but you are not paying a separate heating bill.

If you want a value check on a specific suite, I can pull the building’s recent resales and leases through my building sold report and compare them with nearby lofts.

Building specifications

Amenities at Bloorline Lofts

There is no gym, pool, concierge or party room, and that is a feature as much as a gap. A small amenity list keeps the operating budget lean; what you actually use day to day is the courtyard, your own front door and the Bloor strip. If a gym matters, budget for a membership nearby rather than expecting one in the building.

Jatin’s honest take on Bloorline Lofts

Bloorline Lofts — 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.