Heritage Towns in Davenport Village: Condo Towns Beside the Powerhouse

Heritage Towns is the option I suggest to buyers in Davenport Village who want a front door and stairs instead of a hallway and an elevator, but still want a condo corporation handling the roof and the garage. It sits on the old Canadian General Electric lands, right beside the restored Powerhouse, and it is one of the newer pieces of a neighbourhood that took about two decades to build out. I’m Jatin Dua, RE/MAX Quantum Realty.

Townhouses on the old GE Davenport Works

The land under Davenport Village has a long industrial story. The Canada Foundry Company set up here around 1900, and Canadian General Electric later took over a large factory complex west of Lansdowne, beside two intersecting rail lines. CGE sold the works in 1981 and wound the site down through the 1980s and 1990s.

The City’s 2006 redevelopment plan turned about 19 acres of those lands into Davenport Village, a mix of towns, stacked towns, mid-rise and a loft conversion. The old foundry warehouse became Foundry Lofts, and the original powerhouse was restored and now holds a Balzac’s coffee shop.

Heritage Towns takes its name from that setting. You are living beside the brick powerhouse rather than looking at it from across a park, and that gives this corner more character than most townhouse complexes of its age.

How the homes are laid out

These are vertical homes. Condos.ca describes the complex as four storeys, and resale listings show plans that stack a living and kitchen floor, a principal bedroom floor, a floor of secondary bedrooms and a top level with a den and a walkout to a rooftop terrace. That means a lot of stairs, which is the first thing to decide on before you fall for the terrace.

Recent marketing for one of the larger plans described gas cooking, a laundry room rather than a closet stacker, floor-to-ceiling windows close to nine feet, a rooftop terrace of over 300 sq ft, two tandem parking spaces and an oversized locker reached through an underground garage. Treat that as an example of what the bigger plans offer, not a promise that every unit is the same. Layouts, terrace sizes and parking vary across the complex.

There is also a mismatch to resolve. Condos.ca lists suite sizes of about 873 to 1,138 sq ft, but a four-level plan with three bedrooms and a den reads larger than that. Ask for the builder floor plan and the declared unit area, and measure the rooftop separately, since terrace space is not interior space.

What ownership looks like here

This is a condominium townhouse complex, not freehold. A condo corporation looks after the common elements, and condos.ca lists common elements, building insurance and water as included in the fee. Heat and hydro appear to be on your own account, with each home on its own furnace, but confirm that on the status certificate.

Parking and lockers sit in a shared underground garage rather than in a garage attached to each house. That is convenient in winter, but it means the garage membrane, the ramp and the mechanical ventilation are shared costs the reserve fund has to carry over time.

Public sources do not show a condominium corporation number or a property manager for this complex. That is unusual enough that I would make it the first question on any offer conditional on the status certificate.

Day-to-day life at Lansdowne and Davenport

The neighbourhood has finished most of its build-out, and it shows. Davenport Village Park on Foundry Avenue is the shared green space, and the Greenline project is working to link a linear park along the Hydro corridor. Groceries, a climbing gym and a run of independent restaurants and breweries are close by. Transit and walkability figures are in the data panel on this page.

The rail corridor is the reality check. The Canadian Pacific mainline still runs through the area, and freight noise and vibration vary a lot by exact position. Visit at different times of day, and ask the owners or the agent which side of the complex the home faces.

The final phases of Davenport Village, around 980 Lansdowne Avenue, call for two towers and a mid-rise building, so expect more construction and more neighbours nearby. That will change views and traffic, but it also adds shops and services within walking distance.

How to think about price here

There were no active listings in the data I had when writing this, and with only around 56 homes in the complex, resales come up in small numbers. That makes it hard to quote a reliable price per square foot from public data. My building sold report pulls the recent aggregate sales for this complex.

When you compare, compare like with like. A condo townhouse with a rooftop terrace and underground parking competes with the stacked towns and low-rise condos in Davenport Village and with freehold semis on the side streets nearby. It usually sits between the two: more space and privacy than a condo apartment, less land and more fees than a house.

On fees, the inclusions are modest: common elements, building insurance and water. Add your own heat, hydro and internet before you compare the monthly carrying cost with an apartment in Davenport Village III or Fuse, where the inclusion list may be different.

Building specifications

Amenities at Heritage Towns in Davenport Village

There is no gym, pool or party room here; the amenity is your own private space, often including a rooftop terrace. For a lot of buyers that trade is the point, since you pay for a smaller set of shared costs rather than a large amenity floor.

Jatin’s honest take on Heritage Towns in Davenport Village

Heritage Towns in Davenport Village — frequently asked questions

Looking at Toronto more broadly? Start with my Toronto community guide — the neighbourhoods, what each pocket is like, and how they compare.