Eight Forty, 840 St Clair Ave W: A Boutique RAW Design Mid-Rise

Eight Forty is a small, design-led building on a main street that has always been more neighbourhood than downtown. It suits buyers who want St. Clair West on their doorstep and a newer suite, and it asks you to accept fees above a dollar a square foot for a short amenity list. I’m Jatin Dua, RE/MAX Quantum Realty.

A boutique building on St. Clair West

Eight Forty has 116 suites over two levels of underground parking, with retail at street level. The height is reported differently: the developer’s own description and condos.ca say eight storeys, while construction reporting described a nine-storey building. The difference is most likely how the rooftop or penthouse level is counted, but confirm the floor of any unit you look at.

The architect is RAW Design, with interiors by U31 and landscape by Alexander Budrevics and Associates. DSV Building Group built it. That is a respectable team for a mid-rise of this size, and the result is a contemporary building that sits reasonably well on a street of older two- and three-storey storefronts.

At this scale, the building feels more like an apartment house than a tower. Elevator waits are short, the lobby is small and you will recognise your neighbours. The flip side is that the costs of running the building are split among relatively few owners.

Retail at grade is part of the deal. It keeps the street lively and can bring a café or service you use every day, but it also means deliveries, garbage pickup and a commercial tenant sharing parts of the building. Ask how the retail unit shares costs with the residential corporation, and check the suites directly above it for noise and odours.

Layouts, ceilings and terraces

The size range is wide for a building this small: from about 530 square feet up to roughly 1,800. That top end is a genuine family-sized or downsizer suite, which is rare on St. Clair West, where most new product is studios and one-bedrooms.

The marketing highlighted nine-foot ceilings, European-style cabinetry and designer finishes. Nine feet is a real step up from the 8’6” common in investor-focused buildings, and it makes the compact plans feel larger.

The current listings are all in the 600 to 699 square foot band, including two-bedroom plans. A two-bedroom at under 700 square feet is efficient rather than generous, so check whether the second bedroom has a window and a closet. Upper suites were marketed with terraces large enough for a private barbecue, which is worth confirming in the declaration for the specific unit.

Exposure matters a lot on St. Clair. Suites facing the avenue get the streetscape, the activity and the streetcar noise; suites facing the rear look over the low-rise houses behind and are usually quieter. Ask which way the windows face, check whether a south-facing suite gets afternoon heat, and visit at different times of day if you can, including a weekday evening when the street is busiest.

Fees and what they cover

Fees across the current listings work out to about $1.05 per square foot. That is high for a building with a gym, a party room and an outdoor lounge rather than a pool and a full concierge program. As with most small buildings, scale is the likely reason: fixed costs are shared among only 116 suites.

Condos.ca does not list what the fee includes. Ask the seller and the status certificate whether heat and water are bundled or separately metered, because that can add or remove a hundred dollars or more a month from the comparison with another building.

Ask whether parking and a locker come with the unit. With two levels of underground parking, the building has spaces, but in newer buildings they are often owned separately and not every suite has one.

Wychwood and St. Clair West, day to day

This stretch of St. Clair West is a real main street: independent restaurants, bakeries, cafés and grocers, with a mix of long-time families and younger buyers who came for the streetcar and the houses. The residential streets behind it, toward Wychwood and Hillcrest, are leafy and mostly early-20th-century houses.

The St. Clair streetcar runs past the door in its own right-of-way, and St. Clair West station is east toward Bathurst. The transit panel on this page has the exact distances.

New mid-rise buildings are steadily replacing low-rise commercial lots along St. Clair, so expect more construction and more competing new suites over time. That generally helps the street, and it means resale buyers here will always have a newer alternative to compare against.

Pricing and fees at Eight Forty

The building average on condos.ca is about $945 per square foot. That is a premium over many older St. Clair West condos and in line with newer mid-rises in the area, which is what you would expect for a 2023 building with nine-foot ceilings.

Three suites are listed for sale right now, asking between $500,000 and $628,999. Monthly fees across those listings run from about $611 to $729, roughly $1.05 per square foot.

The fee is where I would push hardest. At over a dollar a square foot, the monthly cost of a 650-square-foot suite is not far from a larger suite in an older building with heat and water included. If the fee here covers utilities, the gap narrows; if it does not, the older building can win on total monthly cost. See my building sold report for what has actually traded.

Building specifications

Amenities at Eight Forty on St. Clair

The amenity package is modest: a gym, a party room with a full kitchen and an outdoor lounge. It covers the basics for hosting and a workout, and the real amenity is St. Clair West itself.

Jatin’s honest take on Eight Forty on St. Clair

Eight Forty on St. Clair — 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.