Lawrence Park on Rosewell, 451-485 Rosewell Ave: Garden-Court Living

Lawrence Park on Rosewell is the closest thing to a garden apartment you will find in this part of Toronto. Tower Hill built it as a cluster of Georgian-style low-rise buildings around a private courtyard, first marketed as a rental community and registered as a condominium in 2005. It is one of the few ways into Lawrence Park for under a million dollars. I’m Jatin Dua, RE/MAX Quantum Realty.

Built as a rental, sold as condos

The history here is unusual. In March 2004 the Globe and Mail reported on Rosewell Gardens, a Tower Hill rental community on this site, with Georgian-inspired buildings designed by Page + Steele, interiors by Bryon Patton and Associates, and the first building’s 87 suites about to open for occupancy.

The condominium corporation, TSCC-1689, registered in July 2005, and the suites now trade as ordinary condos. If you buy here, you are buying into a building that was designed to rental-building standards of its day and then converted to individual ownership, so the status certificate and reserve fund study deserve extra attention.

The numbers do not line up neatly. The Globe described 426 apartments in five buildings of five to seven storeys, while condos.ca lists 336 suites and six storeys for the condominium. I have not been able to confirm why; it may be that not every building on the site is in this corporation. Ask, and confirm which address and building a suite is in.

The courtyard is the point

What sets this project apart is the landscape. Tower Hill planned almost two acres of private gardens in the middle of the site, with stone paths and a water feature, and the buildings are arranged around it rather than stacked into a tower.

For daily life, that means the view from many suites is green and private rather than a street or another tower. It also means common areas that cost money to maintain. Landscaping, paving and water features are reserve fund items, so check how the corporation budgets for them.

Low-rise buildings also live differently. You are never more than a few floors from the ground, elevators serve fewer people, and a building of five or six storeys feels closer to a large house than to a condo tower.

Before you buy, walk the courtyard at different times of day and check what a suite actually looks onto. Ground-floor suites facing the gardens trade privacy for access, and suites on the street side give up the view that makes this project special.

A wide range of suites

Condos.ca lists suites from about 470 to 2,100 square feet. The first rental phase offered one- and two-bedroom plans of about 613 to 833 square feet, and the current listings sit mostly in that range, but there are larger suites in the mix.

That makes this building two markets at once. Compact one-bedrooms attract first-time buyers and investors who want a Lawrence Park address, while the larger plans draw downsizers from nearby houses. Price each against its own peer group, not against the building average.

When the project launched, Tower Hill also promoted wiring for high-speed voice, data and video in every suite, which was a selling point in 2004. Two decades later, ask which internet providers now serve the building, because that matters if you work from home.

Living in Lawrence Park

This is one of Toronto’s most established residential neighbourhoods: large houses, mature trees and ravines, with the shops and restaurants of Avenue Road and Yonge Street close by. Chatsworth Ravine is nearby, and the area feels residential first.

The trade-off is that the immediate area is quiet and residential, so you will drive or take transit for most large errands. That is the point for most buyers here, who are choosing trees and a calm street over a busy main strip.

Condo choices are rare in Lawrence Park, which is why this project matters. For buyers who want to live in the neighbourhood without paying for a detached house, a suite here is one of the few options. The panel beside this review shows stations, schools and parks.

What suites are asking

Condos.ca puts the building average at about $786 per square foot. That is the highest of the north Toronto buildings I track in this group, ahead of Savoy at Camelot at about $727 and Carrington Place at about $680. You are paying for the Lawrence Park address, the low-rise setting and the courtyard.

Seven suites were listed for sale when I checked, asking between $449,000 and $899,000, with fees of about $671 to $1,055 a month. Condos.ca works the average fee out at about $1.05 per square foot, which includes heat, cooling and parking but not hydro.

Low-rise condos usually carry higher fees per square foot than towers, because roofs, landscaping and building envelopes are spread across fewer suites per storey. At about $1.05 per square foot with heat, cooling and parking included, the fee here is reasonable for what it covers, and for a garden setting of this size.

Look at where the money goes. A large courtyard with water features, several separate buildings and a shared garage mean more envelope and more common area to maintain than a single tower with the same number of suites. The reserve fund study will show you what is coming and when.

Seven listings in a 336-suite building is a normal level of supply. Most of them sit in the compact range, so a buyer looking for a smaller suite has real choice and room to negotiate.

Building specifications

Amenities at Lawrence Park on Rosewell

The indoor package is solid but standard: concierge, gym, media room, party room and guest suites. The courtyard is the amenity people actually buy for, and it is the one you will use most from spring to fall.

Jatin’s honest take on Lawrence Park on Rosewell

Lawrence Park on Rosewell — frequently asked questions

Looking at York Mills, Don Mills, Lawrence Park, Bathurst Manor and midtown-north Toronto more broadly? Start with my Toronto community guide — the neighbourhoods, what each pocket is like, and how they compare.