Electra Lofts, 1029 King St W: Two-Storey Soft Lofts, Hydro Included

Electra Lofts is where I send buyers who want a real two-storey loft feel without paying hard-loft prices. This 2002 building fills a whole block at King and Shaw, most suites have a bedroom upstairs overlooking a tall living room, and the fee covers hydro and parking along with heat. It also has gaps in the public record that you should close before you buy. I’m Jatin Dua, RE/MAX Quantum Realty.

A whole block of two-storey suites

Electra was one of the first soft loft buildings on this stretch of King, and it was built at scale. It runs along King and down Douro Street to Shaw, which is why it carries three sets of addresses. Most suites are on two levels.

The typical lower-floor plan puts the bedroom on an upper level open to the living room below, which gives a living area with a ceiling height of up to about 17 feet across the two floors. Walls are concrete. It is a genuinely loft-like volume, and the photographs rarely do it justice.

The same design has a cost. An open bedroom that overlooks the living room offers very little privacy, and sound and light travel between floors. A couple on different schedules, or anyone planning to rent the second bedroom to a roommate, should think hard about that before buying.

The public record does not agree with itself

I want to be straight about the facts. Condos.ca lists Urbancorp as the builder, 257 suites and six storeys. A long-running loft-specialist site lists Landmark Building Group as the developer, 213 suites and nine storeys, and gives a narrower range of 590 to 1,000 square feet, while its own write-up repeats the 257-suite, six-storey figures.

Part of the gap is probably the mix of loft suites and the townhouse-style units on Douro and Shaw, which are sometimes counted separately. I would not pick one version for you. The status certificate and the condominium declaration will settle the suite count and the developer of record.

What is consistent across sources is the date. The corporation, TSCC-1445, was registered in July 2002, so you are buying into a building with more than 20 years of history.

Hydro and parking in the fee

The unusual part of Electra is what the fee covers. Condos.ca lists common elements, heat, hydro, air conditioning, insurance, water and parking. Hydro is rarely bundled in Toronto condos, and in a two-storey suite with tall windows, heating and cooling costs are not small.

That means the fee will look high next to a newer building that meters everything to the suite. The fair comparison is your total monthly cost, including a parking space at a newer building, which is often a separate charge. Ask whether the suite you are looking at actually has a deeded or exclusive-use space.

The fee is also the reason Electra rarely appears at the top of a search sorted by monthly cost. Buyers who filter by fee screen it out without ever seeing it, which can leave room to negotiate for those who do the arithmetic.

Bundled utilities also mean every owner shares the cost of the heaviest users. That is worth asking the manager about, along with whether the board has studied sub-metering.

Condition varies suite by suite

Two decades on, original kitchens and carpeted stairs are common in suites that have not been updated, so condition is set by each owner rather than by the building. Price the renovation into your offer if a suite is original.

Outside, the building was repainted around 2014, ending its run as the yellow building on King. Penthouse suites have rooftop terraces and lower floors have balconies. Day to day, Liberty Village’s grocery stores and restaurants are a short walk south, with a pedestrian bridge just south of the building, and the DNA development and Massey Harris Park sit across Shaw.

Trinity Bellwoods Park and the Queen West strip are a reasonable walk north, and the King streetcar runs past the door. Boarding at rush hour can be difficult, so test your commute at the time you would actually travel.

What Electra Lofts costs

Condos.ca puts the building average at about $854 per square foot, very close to DNA North Tower next door and well under newer King West product. For a two-storey suite with a tall living room, that is a reasonable number.

Keep in mind that price per square foot can flatter or punish a two-level plan. Some of the floor area is stairs, and the open upper level is usable space but not a closed bedroom, so compare suites by layout as well as by size.

There were no suites listed for sale at the time of writing, so I cannot give you a current asking range. That is not unusual for a building where owners tend to stay, and it means you may need patience and an alert for new listings.

With no active supply, past sales are the only honest benchmark. The sold figures in the data panel are aggregates of real MLS transactions, and for a specific suite I can put together a fuller picture through my building sold report before you make an offer.

When you compare fees, remember that this one covers hydro, heat and parking. Two buildings with the same price per square foot can differ by a few hundred dollars a month once you add those costs back onto the one that excludes them.

Building specifications

Amenities at Electra Lofts

The amenities are modest: a renovated gym, a party room, a media room and a meeting room. You are paying for utilities and parking here, not for a pool or a big lounge, and Beanfield Fibre is a real plus if you work from home.

Jatin’s honest take on Electra Lofts

Electra 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.