Hill and Dale Residences, 1 Roxborough St E: 14 Suites Above Yonge Street

Hill and Dale is one of the smallest condominiums in midtown, and one of the most unusual. It is a three-storey red brick building at Yonge and Roxborough that Old Stonehenge and Clifton Blake converted and extended, with shops on Yonge, offices above them, and only about 14 residences on the top floors looking east over the Rosedale ravine. If you want a house-sized suite with a terrace and almost no neighbours, there is very little else like it. I’m Jatin Dua, RE/MAX Quantum Realty.

An old brick building with three floors of homes on top

Before construction, the corner held a three-storey red brick institutional building. Rather than demolish it, the developers kept and renovated it and added new floors above. The aim, as the sales team put it at the time, was something sympathetic to the fine-grained retail strip on this part of Yonge rather than a dramatic change to the streetscape.

The finished building splits into three layers. Shops face Yonge at street level, roughly 10,000 sq ft of rental office space sits above them, and the residences occupy the fourth to sixth floors. That arrangement means the homes start well above the sidewalk, with no retail directly under your floor.

Mixed-use buildings like this have a different budget structure from a pure residential condo. Ask how the commercial and residential components share costs for the roof, elevators, garbage and envelope, and who controls decisions on the shared parts. The declaration and the status certificate will answer that.

Ten- and eleven-foot ceilings, and terraces up to 1,900 sq ft

Launch coverage described suites from about 871 sq ft up to roughly 3,200 to 3,600 sq ft, with 10- and 11-foot ceilings and no bulkheads or dropped ceilings in the living areas. Windows were specified as floor-to-ceiling triple glazing, which matters on Yonge Street for both noise and heating costs.

The specification was serious: bulthaup kitchen cabinetry, Gaggenau appliances, engineered oak floors, marble fireplaces and large stone bathrooms with soaker tubs and double vanities. Layouts were customisable during sales, so no two larger suites are necessarily alike.

Outdoor space is the headline. Private terraces of up to about 1,900 sq ft were planned, with decking and barbecue connections, and the sixth-floor penthouses were designed with rooftop areas served by dumbwaiters. Many terraces face east over the Rosedale valley, which is the view that justifies the price.

Because buyers were able to customise their suites during construction, some owners worked with their own designers and reworked the shell. When you view a resale, ask for the as-built drawings and any permits or approvals for changes made after registration, and do not assume that the original brochure plan still describes the suite in front of you.

A boutique building with a concierge

With so few suites, Hill and Dale behaves more like a private residence than a condo tower. Condos.ca lists concierge and security service, a security system, bike storage and barbecue permission. There is no gym, pool or party room, and owners at this level generally do not expect one.

The flip side of a 14-suite building is that every cost is shared among very few owners. A roof replacement, an elevator modernisation or a staffing increase lands hard on each suite. That is normal for a building of this type, but it makes the reserve fund study the most important document you will read.

Resale is also thin. There may be one or two listings a year, and each one is a different size and layout. Pricing a suite here is closer to pricing a house than a condo, which is why I would not rely on any building average.

Staffing is the other fee driver to understand. A concierge and security presence spread across about 14 suites costs each owner far more than the same service in a large building, so ask for the current budget and how staffing costs have moved since registration.

Summerhill on one side, Rosedale on the other

This corner sits at the seam of two of Toronto’s quietest and most established neighbourhoods. Yonge Street here is a strip of independent shops, cafés and restaurants, and Summerhill’s food shops are a short walk north. To the east, Roxborough leads into Rosedale’s ravine streets.

Yonge Street is a busy road, and the triple glazing and the residences’ height above the shops help with that. Terraces facing east toward the ravine are the calmer side; anything facing Yonge will hear the street on weekend nights.

Transit, schools and nearby parks are in the data panel on this page. For a buyer who wants to walk to everything on Yonge and still look out over trees, this is about as good a location as midtown offers.

Pricing and fees at Hill and Dale

There is no useful per-square-foot average for a building this small, and condos.ca does not publish one. Typically only one suite is on the market at a time, and each one differs in size, terrace and exposure, so a building average would mislead more than it would help. Individual sales are not published on this page, and asking prices here should be judged against the suite itself, not the building.

Fees here are high in absolute terms because the suites are large and the building is staffed. They cover common elements, building insurance and water. Hydro, heat and cooling are not listed as included, so ask for actual utility bills from the seller, since large glass suites with fireplaces and terraces can carry meaningful heating and cooling costs.

If you are serious about this building, the best comparison set is not other condos but other premium boutique buildings in Summerhill, Rosedale and Yorkville, along with semi-detached houses in Summerhill. My building sold report is the right place to start that comparison.

Building specifications

Amenities at Hill and Dale Residences

The amenities are about service and security rather than shared rooms: a concierge, security and bike storage. In a building this small, the real amenity is your own terrace and the privacy of having only a dozen or so neighbours.

Jatin’s honest take on Hill and Dale Residences

Hill and Dale Residences — frequently asked questions

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