King Edward Private Residences, 37 King St E: Condos Inside a 1903 Hotel

King Edward Private Residences is not a tower at all. It is roughly 140 condo suites built inside three floors of the King Edward Hotel, the 1903 palace hotel on King Street East, so you live behind Edwardian stone with a hotel lobby downstairs. That history is the reason to buy here, and the fee is the reason to slow down. I’m Jatin Dua, RE/MAX Quantum Realty.

Condos inside Toronto’s first palace hotel

The King Edward opened in May 1903 as Toronto’s first palace hotel, meant to compete with the grand hotels of New York and London. American architect Henry Ives Cobb and Toronto’s E.J. Lennox designed the original eight-storey building in a Beaux Arts style, in limestone, buff brick and ornate terracotta. It is still one of the most handsome buildings on King Street.

The condominium came much later. According to ERA Architects, floors 3, 4 and 5 had last been used as offices in the 1980s and then sat empty for about twenty years. They were stripped back to steel columns and concrete floors and rebuilt as about 140 suites in roughly 100,000 square feet. The 1970s metal windows were replaced with new wood sash windows, and balconies were added inside the large light wells.

The Toronto Star’s condo critic gave the conversion an A at the time, which ERA still quotes. The hotel continues to operate around the residences, and ERA has since carried out a long masonry repair programme on the full height of the building and restored the grand public rooms.

Who developed it, and why sources differ

Condos.ca lists Dundee Realty Corporation as developer and builder, while the long-running UrbanToronto project thread names Skyline, and ERA describes its client as the King Edward Hotel. These are not necessarily contradictions, since hotel conversions often involve an ownership group and partners, but I would not quote one name with certainty. The condominium’s declaration will show who registered it.

Condos.ca also lists the building as four storeys, which reflects how the condominium sits within the hotel rather than the height of the building. The suite count differs slightly too: ERA says 140 residential suites, condos.ca says 143.

For a buyer, the practical point is simple: the condominium is one part of a larger building that it does not fully control. The hotel side will typically make decisions about the lobby, the public rooms and the exterior work that affect how it feels to come home, which is a different situation from owning in a standalone tower.

Small suites, light wells and hotel windows

Because the suites were built inside an existing hotel floor plate, the layouts are shaped by the old building. Condos.ca lists sizes from about 341 to 1,806 square feet, and most of what trades is one-bedrooms in the 500s and 600s and two-bedrooms in the 700s. Some face King Street or Leader Lane; others face the light wells, where the new balconies were added.

That makes the specific suite matter enormously. A suite on a light well will have a quieter, more enclosed outlook than one with windows on King Street. Ceiling heights and window sizes also vary with the original architecture, so walk each suite rather than relying on a floor plan.

The wood sash windows are part of the charm, and they were a deliberate heritage choice. They also need more care than modern aluminium windows, so ask how the corporation maintains and budgets for them, and look at how well the suite’s windows seal before you buy. Heat and cooling are in the fee, so drafty windows are a shared cost rather than only your problem.

Living at King and Yonge

The location is the other half of the case. You are a short walk from the Financial District, St. Lawrence Market and the theatres on Front Street The transit panel on this page has the subway walking times. For someone who works downtown, it is hard to beat.

Living in a working hotel also brings hotel energy: guests, events and deliveries. Condos.ca lists room service and a security guard among the building’s features, which some owners love. Others find the activity less private than a standalone condo, so it is worth visiting at a busy time.

What King Edward Private Residences costs

Condos.ca puts the building average at about $876 per square foot. That is in line with newer buildings nearby, which tells you buyers pay for the heritage address rather than for size or modern amenities.

Three suites were for sale when I checked: one-bedrooms asking about $495,000 to $550,000 and a two-bedroom at about $750,000. Fees on those listings ran from roughly $805 to $1,137 a month.

With only a handful of suites listed at any time in a building this small, there is not much to compare inside the building, and pricing can swing on one or two sales. A suite with King Street windows and a usable layout should be priced differently from one facing a light well, even at the same size.

That fee works out to about $1.46 per square foot, which is high by any downtown standard, even with heat, cooling and water included. Running a condo inside an old hotel is not cheap, and the fee is the number that will decide whether this works for you. Run the total monthly cost before you fall for the windows. I can pull past trades through my building sold report.

Building specifications

Amenities at King Edward Private Residences

The amenity list is short for a downtown condo, with no pool or large gym listed. What you get instead is hotel living: concierge, security, a business centre and room service, with the hotel’s restaurants and grand rooms downstairs.

Jatin’s honest take on King Edward Private Residences

King Edward Private Residences — frequently asked questions

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