Lighthouse East Tower, 20 Richardson St: Small Suites by Sugar Beach

Lighthouse East Tower is the smaller of the two Daniels Lighthouse towers on Queens Quay East, and it is a building of compact suites: nothing here is much over 860 sq ft. That makes it a strong waterfront entry point for a first-time buyer or an investor, and the wrong building for anyone who needs a third bedroom or a big dining room. I’m Jatin Dua, RE/MAX Quantum Realty.

One half of the Lighthouse pair

Daniels Waterfront – City of the Arts is a mixed-use block on the north side of Queens Quay East between Lower Jarvis and Richardson Street. UrbanToronto tracks the whole project under Daniels and RAW Design, and it combines an office and commercial podium at 130 Queens Quay East, the Artscape Daniels Launchpad creative space, and two residential towers branded as the Lighthouse towers.

The West Tower at 15 Lower Jarvis launched first as a 45-storey building and is the larger of the two, with 533 suites. The East Tower at 20 Richardson is shorter, at 36 storeys, with 300 suites. Both were finished and registered in 2020, so they share a podium, a neighbourhood and an age, but they are separate condominium corporations.

That separation matters when you buy. Each tower has its own board, budget and reserve fund, so a strong or weak decision at one does not automatically carry over to the other. Read the status certificate for the building you are actually buying, not its twin.

A building of compact suites

Suites at Lighthouse East run from about 399 sq ft to about 863 sq ft. Most of the stock is studios, one-bedrooms and one-plus-dens under 600 sq ft, with a limited number of two-bedroom plans in the 600 to 860 sq ft range.

For a first-time buyer, that is a good thing: it keeps the entry price on the waterfront within reach. For an end user who wants to stay ten years, it is a limit. There is no penthouse or family-size stock to move up into, so if your household is likely to grow, look at the West Tower or at older, larger-suite buildings along The Esplanade.

With so many small suites, expect a high share of tenants and frequent move-ins and move-outs. That is normal for a building of this type, but it is worth knowing before you choose a suite near the elevators or the loading area.

Life between Sugar Beach and the Gardiner

The building sits a short walk from Canada’s Sugar Beach, the Redpath refinery and the Queens Quay waterfront promenade, and a Loblaws anchors the corner of Queens Quay and Jarvis. Groceries, a lake walk and a cycle track at the door are the daily advantages here.

North of the site, the elevated Gardiner Expressway and Lake Shore Boulevard separate the East Bayfront from St. Lawrence. Suites facing north look toward the expressway and the city; suites facing south look toward the lake and the new East Bayfront buildings. Ask which way your suite faces and stand on the balcony at rush hour before you decide.

The neighbourhood is still filling in. Waterfront Toronto continues to build out the East Bayfront, and the George Brown College waterfront campus and Corus Quay are already nearby. Expect more neighbours, more shops and more construction over the next few years. Transit, schools and parks are in the data panel on this page.

East or West: choosing between the twins

If you are looking at Lighthouse East, you will almost certainly see listings at Lighthouse West too, so it helps to compare them directly. West is the taller tower at 45 storeys with 533 suites; East is 36 storeys with 300. Both were completed in 2020 by the same developer and architect.

On price, the two trade almost identically, at about $950 and $954 per square foot. The differences are scale and suite mix. West has more suites and more of the larger plans, so a two-bedroom buyer will usually find more choice there, while East’s smaller population means fewer people sharing the lobby and elevators.

Fees are close as well, with West’s current listings working out to about $0.96 per sq ft. My advice is to pick the suite, not the tower: the right floor, a good exposure and an efficient plan matter far more here than which of the two lobbies you walk through.

What Lighthouse East costs

The building averages about $950 per square foot. That is effectively the same as its twin, Lighthouse West, at about $954, and well above the brand-new Empire Quay House across Richardson Street at about $875. Small suites push up the per-square-foot figure, so compare plans of the same size.

Fees on current listings run from about $383 a month for a studio to about $729, which works out to roughly $0.90 to $1.15 per sq ft depending on the plan. The fee covers common elements, building insurance and water; hydro is on your own meter.

Because two towers of the same age and developer share this block, comparables are easy to find. That helps with pricing, but it also means a buyer can always walk next door, so a seller here needs to price against both buildings, not just this one.

There are nine suites listed for sale right now, asking from $359,900 to $699,900. Studios are asking between $409,000 and $419,900 and one-plus-dens between $499,000 and $609,000. For sold prices and rents, see the data panel or my building sold report.

Building specifications

Amenities at Lighthouse East Tower

The amenity list recorded for the building is short: concierge, a gym and a party room. Ask on your showing which shared spaces in the Daniels Waterfront podium residents can actually use, because the brochure for the whole community and the amenities this one corporation owns are not the same thing.

Jatin’s honest take on Lighthouse East Tower

Lighthouse East Tower — 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.