Ellipse East Tower, 38 Lee Centre Dr: Heat and Parking in the Fee

Most buyers who look at Ellipse East Tower cannot tell it apart from its twin at 36 Lee Centre Drive, and the listings do not always help. They are two separate condominium corporations with two budgets, so the address matters more than the view. What 38 Lee Centre offers is a fee that carries heat, cooling and parking, at a price per square foot well below new Scarborough towers. I’m Jatin Dua, RE/MAX Quantum Realty.

One of five towers in a planned block

Lee Centre Drive is not a street of unrelated buildings. It is a planned cluster by one development family, laid out on a block just south of the Highway 401 and McCowan Road interchange. A 1998 City of Toronto report on the block describes a first phase, Hillsborough Court, with 464 suites and ground-floor retail, and notes that a third tower, May Tower, was then under construction for Lee Development Corporation.

The two Ellipse towers came next, with the East Tower finishing in 2004. The result is a little neighbourhood of high-rises sharing roads, a park and retail at the base, which is why the area reads more like a campus than a strip of towers.

That history helps you. When you compare 38 Lee Centre against May Tower II across the street or the older Hillsborough Court buildings, you are comparing towers of a similar age and builder background, which makes the comparables more meaningful than they usually are in Scarborough.

Two towers, two corporations: get the number right

Condos.ca lists this tower as TSCC-1650. Another building summary I read gives the Ellipse pair as TSCC-1608 and TSCC-1656. Those cannot all be right, so ask for the status certificate early and read the corporation number at the top of it before you rely on any fee or reserve figure.

The reason this matters is practical. If the two towers are separate corporations, each has its own reserve fund study, its own board and its own rules. A strong reserve fund at 36 Lee Centre tells you nothing about 38, and any shared-facility agreement between them will set how costs for the amenity space, garage and grounds are split. Ask for that agreement too.

The same summary describes the towers as 34 and 38 storeys in one place and as a single 38-storey building in another. Condos.ca gives 34 storeys and 383 suites for the East Tower. I use the condos.ca figures here, but the floor count on your listing should match the registered plan.

Layouts from compact one-plus-dens to two-plus-dens

Condos.ca puts suites here between about 476 and 1,117 square feet. Current listings show the usual mix for a tower of this era: one-bedroom-plus-den plans in the 600s, two-bedrooms in the 700s and two-bedroom-plus-den suites in the 900s.

In buildings from the early 2000s, the den is often an open nook rather than a room with a door, so check the floor plan before you count it as a second bedroom. The larger suites in this range are the ones that hold value for families, because a 900-plus square foot two-plus-den is hard to find in a new Scarborough tower at any price.

The name refers to the curved form of the towers, which one summary describes as a curved glass wall. Ask whether windows and balcony doors are original. In a 2004 building they are approaching the age where a corporation plans replacement, and that is a large line in any reserve fund.

Daily life between the 401 and the town centre

The location is the reason most people buy here. You are tucked against the 401, which makes driving east to Durham or west across the city simple, and you are close to Scarborough Town Centre for shopping, the civic centre and the bus terminal.

Transit is in transition. The old Line 3 Scarborough RT closed in 2023 and buses now cover that route. The City’s Line 2 East Extension will run 7.8 km from Kennedy with new stations at Lawrence and McCowan, Scarborough Centre and a new terminus at Sheppard and McCowan, and construction is underway. That is a long-term reason the Lee Centre block should hold demand, though the City has not published an opening date.

The trade-off is noise and traffic. Suites facing the highway or the McCowan ramps will hear it, so visit at rush hour and ask which way the suite faces before you fall for the floor plan.

Within the block, the towers share a small park and retail at the base of the older buildings, so a coffee or a quick errand does not need the car. For a big grocery run or anything else, most residents still drive or take the bus to the town centre.

What 38 Lee Centre costs, and what the fee buys

Condos.ca shows an average of about $606 per square foot for this tower. That sits well below what new towers in Scarborough City Centre ask from builder inventory, which is the main value case here.

At the time of writing there were five suites for sale, asking between $379,900 and $570,000. Their maintenance fees ran from $667 to $985 a month, about $1.04 per square foot on average.

That fee looks high next to newer buildings, but read what it carries: heat, air conditioning, water, building insurance, common elements and parking. In most new towers heat and cooling sit on your own meter and parking is a separate charge. Hydro for your suite is the main cost you add on top here, so ask for a recent bill when you compare.

Building specifications

Amenities at Ellipse East Tower

Condos.ca lists concierge, a party room, guest suites and a meeting room for this tower, and another summary describes an Ellipse club with an indoor pool, whirlpool, sauna and gym. Ask which facilities sit in which tower and how the two corporations share them, because that decides who pays when the pool needs work.

Jatin’s honest take on Ellipse East Tower

Ellipse East Tower — frequently asked questions

Looking at Scarborough Bluffs, West Hill, Guildwood, Woburn, Malvern and Rouge more broadly? Start with my Toronto community guide — the neighbourhoods, what each pocket is like, and how they compare.