Canyon Tower, 100 Canyon Ave: 90 Big Suites With Hydro in the Fee

Canyon Tower is the building I think of when a downsizer tells me they will not give up a real dining room. It is a 12-storey, 90-suite condominium from 1974, and every suite condos.ca has on record is over 1,150 square feet. The fee is high on paper, but it pays for almost everything, including your hydro. I’m Jatin Dua, RE/MAX Quantum Realty.

A small tower with only 90 suites

Ninety suites over 12 floors works out to well under ten suites per floor. That is a very different living experience from the 300- and 400-suite towers that went up across North York in the same decade. Fewer neighbours share each corridor and each elevator, and the building feels closer to a large private apartment house than a tower.

Small corporations cut both ways, though. Every repair is split among only 90 owners, so a new roof, a garage repair or an elevator modernization lands harder on each suite than it would in a building three times the size. That is the single most important thing to understand before buying here, and it is why I read the reserve fund study for a building like this before I look at the kitchen.

Condos.ca does not name the original developer, and I could not confirm one from other sources, so I have left it blank rather than guess.

Suites from about 1,150 to 1,500 square feet

This is the reason people buy at Canyon Tower. Condos.ca’s size data runs from about 1,151 to 1,507 square feet, and the suites on the market when I checked were all two-bedroom or two-bedroom-plus-den plans. There is no studio or small one-bedroom stock here, which keeps the owner base weighted toward people who plan to stay.

At this size you get a separate dining area, a proper living room and bedrooms that take a queen bed with room to walk around it. That is the space a lot of buyers leaving a house in Bathurst Manor or Clanton Park are trying to keep, and it is hard to find in anything built after 2000 at this price.

The flip side of a 1974 building is that the original finishes may still be in place in some suites. Two suites of the same size can be worth very different amounts depending on whether the kitchen, bathrooms, windows and electrical panel have been updated, so ask for the renovation history and permits on any suite you look at.

A fee that pays for almost everything

Condos.ca lists the fee as covering common elements, heat, hydro, air conditioning, water, parking, cable TV and building insurance. That is about as complete as fee inclusions get in Toronto. In most newer buildings, hydro, heat and air conditioning are on your own meter and parking is a separate charge.

The monthly fees on the current listings run from about $1,306 to $1,548. That looks high until you add back what an owner pays separately in a newer building: an electricity bill that climbs in summer with air conditioning, a heating bill in winter, cable and parking. For a large suite, the gap narrows a lot.

The risk is the other side of the same coin. When the corporation pays for hydro and gas, rising utility rates show up in everyone’s fee. Ask how the budget has handled energy costs over the past few years and whether the board has done any energy retrofits.

Earl Bales Park and Sheppard Avenue West

Canyon Avenue is a short residential street with a cluster of apartment buildings, including two Greenwin rental buildings at 15 and 25 Canyon. Greenwin’s own listing for those buildings describes Earl Bales Park as metres away, with its ski hill, amphitheatre, off-leash dog area and community and seniors centre. For a retiree, that seniors centre is a practical reason to live here.

The same Greenwin page names Sheppard Plaza as walkable, with a 24-hour Metro and a Shoppers Drug Mart. Day to day, that covers most errands without the car. The panel beside this review shows the nearest subway station and bus routes.

Further west, Canada Lands Company has resubmitted its plan for the Downsview West district on the former airport lands, about 8,800 homes over more than a decade, according to UrbanToronto. That will not change Canyon Avenue itself, but it will bring more people, shops and construction to the wider Sheppard West area over the next 10 to 15 years.

Pricing: low per foot, high per month

Condos.ca puts the building average at about $424 per square foot. That is low for Toronto and low even for North York, and it reflects both the age of the building and the size of the suites: large suites almost always trade at a lower price per foot than small ones.

Four suites were listed for sale when I checked, with asking prices from $499,000 to $599,999 and monthly fees from about $1,306 to $1,548. Nothing was listed for rent, which fits a building where most owners live in their suites.

The way I frame it for clients: you are buying a lot of space at a low entry price, and paying a higher monthly fee that replaces most of your utility bills. Run the full monthly cost, including fee, property tax and mortgage, against a smaller newer suite with its own hydro and parking bills. For real sale numbers over the past year, use the panel, or ask me for a building sold report.

Building specifications

Amenities at Canyon Tower

An indoor pool and sauna in a 90-suite building is unusual, and it means year-round swimming without a club membership. It is also a large fixed cost shared among few owners, so check what the reserve fund study sets aside for the pool.

Jatin’s honest take on Canyon Tower

Canyon Tower — frequently asked questions

Looking at York Mills, Don Mills, Lawrence Park, Bathurst Manor and midtown-north Toronto more broadly? Start with my Toronto community guide — the neighbourhoods, what each pocket is like, and how they compare.