Chaz Yorkville, 45 Charles St E: The Tower With a Club on the 36th Floor

Chaz Yorkville is the building on Charles Street that put its best amenity at the top instead of the bottom. The two-storey Chaz Club sits near the crown of the 47-storey tower, with a lounge, kitchen and open-air balcony looking south over the city. Add an angled floor plate that turns many suites into corners and a fee under a dollar a square foot, and you have the strongest case on this block for a compact suite. I’m Jatin Dua, RE/MAX Quantum Realty.

A club in the sky

The Chaz Club is why people remember this building. It is a residents-only, two-level space on the 36th and 37th floors, with a double-height lounge, a demonstration kitchen and dining area, a bar, an interior balcony overlooking the floor below, and an open-air balcony with views to the south, south-east and east.

The club cantilevers out from the side of the tower, which is what gives the balcony its open view. That is a real difference from most towers, which put their party room on the podium roof, looking at the next building.

A note on floor numbers: the building skips the 13th floor and floors ending in four, so the labels on the elevator buttons run higher than the real number of storeys. Keep that in mind when comparing views with other towers.

Eight corners a floor

Page + Steele/IBI, with Sol Wassermuhl as lead designer, gave the tower a double-diamond plan turned 45 degrees to the street. The result is eight corner suites on each full floor, angled to look past the neighbouring towers rather than straight into them.

That geometry is the real reason to buy here over a box-shaped neighbour. A corner suite gets two exposures, more light and a less direct view into the next building. The trade is that some rooms end up with angled walls, so check that your furniture fits before you buy.

The base is a five-storey podium clad in limestone with green glass, with the octagonal glass tower above it. The project was marketed at 39 storeys in 2010 and was built to 47.

Suites, the investor mix, and which one I would buy

Suites range from about 378 square feet up to roughly 3,413 for the largest penthouse, but most of the building is studios, one-bedrooms and one-bedroom-plus-dens. Original specifications included nine- or ten-foot ceilings, floor-to-ceiling windows, smooth ceilings, wide-plank laminate and custom cabinetry by Cecconi Simone.

Compact suites a few minutes from Yonge and Bloor attract investors, and at the time of writing there were seven suites listed for lease alongside ten for sale. That is normal for this street, but it means more move-ins and more elevator bookings than in an owner-heavy building. The panel on this page shows the owner and renter mix.

With 526 suites, Chaz is really several different buildings stacked on top of each other. The low floors of the podium look onto Charles Street and the towers across it; the middle floors start to clear the Casa buildings; the upper floors near and above the club get the long views south.

For an owner-occupier, I would focus on a corner one-bedroom-plus-den or two-bedroom above the podium. Those suites get the most out of the angled plan, with two exposures and more light. For an investor, a well-laid-out one-bedroom on a middle floor is easier to rent and resell than the smallest studios, which compete with hundreds of similar suites on this street.

Whatever you look at, compare it against the same exposure and floor range in this building first, then against Casa and Casa II. That is the fairest way to judge whether an asking price is right.

Daily life on Charles Street East

Charles Street East is now a short canyon of towers. Chaz sits beside Casa at 33 Charles and across from Casa II, with Casa III a little further east. Yonge and Bloor, the Bloor Street shops and Yorkville are a few minutes west, and the Church-Wellesley Village is a few minutes east.

Expect busy sidewalks, limited street parking and construction somewhere on the block in most years. The upside is that almost everything you need day to day is within a short walk. The panel on this page covers transit and Walk Score.

Price per square foot and fees against the Casa towers

The building has averaged about $899 per square foot. That sits between Casa at 33 Charles, at about $878, and Casa II at 42 Charles, at about $960, which is about where I would expect a 2015 tower to land between a 2010 and a 2016 building.

Fees are where Chaz stands out. Across current listings they average about $0.94 per square foot, compared with roughly $1.20 to $1.28 at the Casa buildings. Heat, cooling and water are included, and parking is not, so if a suite comes with a spot, confirm whether there is a separate charge.

On a 600-square-foot one-bedroom, the gap between $0.94 and $1.25 per square foot is close to $190 a month, or more than $2,200 a year. Over a five-year hold that is real money, and it is the strongest financial argument for this building on the street.

At the time of writing there were ten active listings. The eight I reviewed asked from $399,000 to $779,000, from a one-bedroom under 500 square feet to a two-bedroom, with monthly fees from about $341 to $729. My building sold report shows what has actually traded.

Building specifications

Amenities at Chaz Yorkville

These are the amenities Edenshaw marketed when the building launched, so walk the floors and confirm what is still in place today. The Chaz Club is the one that matters: a skyline lounge most buildings simply do not have. Ask how far ahead the club has to be booked for a private event. In a 526-suite tower, check the gym at a busy hour before you count on it.

Jatin’s honest take on Chaz Yorkville

Chaz Yorkville — frequently asked questions

Looking at Church–Wellesley, Corktown, Moss Park and Cabbagetown more broadly? Start with my Toronto community guide — the neighbourhoods, what each pocket is like, and how they compare.