Davenport Village III, 25 Turntable Cres: Townhomes on the Old GE Lands

Davenport Village III is one of the quieter ways to own a townhouse-style home in the west end without paying freehold prices. It is a 2011 phase of 84 low-rise condo homes on Turntable Crescent and Foundry Avenue, built on land that was a General Electric factory for most of the last century. The park is out front and the fee covers your parking. I’m Jatin Dua, RE/MAX Quantum Realty.

Built on a century of foundry and factory history

The ground under Davenport Village has a longer industrial story than most of the west end. Canada Foundry was incorporated in 1900, and Canadian General Electric built a factory complex on a roughly 60-acre site west of Lansdowne Avenue beside two intersecting rail lines. Most of the buildings were up by 1903, and the plant later made transformers and other electrical products.

CGE sold the Davenport Works in 1981, and the site sat through years of clean-up debate before the community approved a waste removal process in 1997. By 2006 the City had a plan for a 7.68-hectare Davenport Village on the old GE lands. The street names, Turntable Crescent and Foundry Avenue, are a nod to that past.

Some of the old buildings survived. The 1903 Canada Foundry warehouse on Lansdowne became Foundry Lofts after heritage designation in 2008, and the restored powerhouse is now a Balzac’s coffee shop. That mix of a few original structures and a lot of new low-rise housing is what gives the pocket its character.

A phase of 84 townhomes, not a tower

Davenport Village was planned as roughly nine phases and around 1,960 homes once complete, ranging from the loft conversion to stacked townhouses and high-rises. Phase III is at the low-rise end. Condos.ca lists it as a two-storey-scale complex of 84 homes, and suites here are generally stacked townhouse layouts spread over more than one level.

At 855 to 1,145 sq ft, the homes are sized for couples and small families rather than first-time studio buyers. Recent listings in the complex have described two-bedroom-plus-den layouts on three levels with a private rooftop deck on the upper units, and underground parking. Layouts vary between upper and lower homes, so look at the floor plan, not just the square footage.

The developer was the Brownstone Group of Companies. Other phases of Davenport Village were developed by the Neudorfer Corporation, and many were designed by Gabriel Bodor Architects, so if you are comparing phases, check who built each one and when.

The park, the coffee and the daily errands

The best feature here is not inside the homes. Davenport Village Park sits on Foundry Avenue, with a playground at the centre of the community, and Earlscourt Park and the Joseph Piccininni Community Centre are a short walk north. For a family in a townhouse without a big yard, that is a real substitute for a backyard.

For errands, a No Frills and a Shoppers Drug Mart sit side by side a couple of blocks south. Davenport and Lansdowne buses run nearby, and the data panel on this page lists the nearest stops and schools.

The area is still changing. Further phases of Davenport Village were planned southeast of the complex at 980 Lansdowne Avenue, including two towers on a shared podium, and Galleria on the Park is reshaping Dufferin and Dupont about a kilometre away. More density usually means more shops and services, and also more construction for a few years.

What owning a condo townhouse here is really like

A stacked townhouse is a different daily experience from a condo apartment. You have your own front door at grade or up a short flight, no elevator wait and no long corridors, and usually two or three sets of stairs inside the home. Buyers who love the idea sometimes find the stairs harder than expected with a stroller or as they age, so walk the full layout before you commit.

You also share less. There is no concierge, no amenity floor and no elevator to maintain, so the corporation’s budget goes mostly to the garage, roofs, grounds and snow clearing. That tends to keep fees moderate, but it also means a single big item, like a garage membrane, is a larger share of the reserve fund.

Noise is the other point. In stacked layouts, one home sits above another, so ask the seller how much they hear from the unit above or below, and look at which rooms share a floor or wall with a neighbour.

Pricing a townhouse condo with parking included

There were no homes for sale here when I checked, only one for lease, and Condos.ca did not publish a building average price per square foot. In an 84-home complex where owners tend to stay put, that is normal, and it means you price against past sales in the complex rather than a live range.

I compare Phase III against the other Davenport Village townhouse phases first, adjusting for size, level and whether a home has a rooftop deck, then against freehold row houses in the surrounding streets as a ceiling. My building sold report gives closed-sale aggregates without exposing anyone’s sale.

On the fee side, parking and water are included along with common elements and building insurance. Heat and hydro are not listed as included, so in a townhouse layout expect to pay your own heating and electricity. When you compare fees with a tower, add those back in on the tower side too, since many towers bill parking separately.

Building specifications

Amenities at Davenport Village III

There is no gym or party room here, and that is a feature as much as a gap. The shared costs are a parking garage, the grounds and the building envelope, which keeps the budget simpler. Barbecues are permitted, and Condos.ca lists the complex as pet-friendly; confirm the specific rules in the declaration and rules.

Jatin’s honest take on Davenport Village III

Davenport Village III — frequently asked questions

Looking at the Junction, Corso Italia, Hillcrest Village and west-central Toronto more broadly? Start with my Toronto community guide — the neighbourhoods, what each pocket is like, and how they compare.