Murano, 38 Grenville St: Two architectsAlliance Towers at Bay and College

Murano is the building I suggest when someone wants to live between the hospitals, the university and Queen’s Park in a building that is old enough to have a track record and new enough not to feel dated. It is two glass towers on a shared podium near Bay and Grenville, designed by Peter Clewes of architectsAlliance and finished in 2009 and 2010. The fee list is good, the suites are compact, and the sources do not agree on who built it. I’m Jatin Dua, RE/MAX Quantum Realty.

Two towers, one corporation

Murano is a pair of glass towers joined by a two-storey podium, with the north tower on Grosvenor Street and the south tower on Grenville Street, and frontage on Bay between them. Peter Clewes of architectsAlliance designed it, the same architect behind Spire on Lombard Street, and it was marketed as a fusion of art, architecture and glass.

Wikipedia also gives the complex a Bay Street address, 825 Bay Street, for the podium. Toronto City Planning credited Murano, together with Burano across the street, with improving the Bay Street streetscape, which is not something planners say about every tower on this corridor. The podium was planned with retail, recreation space, a rooftop garden and a glass public art feature.

Both towers sit in one condominium corporation, TSCC-2037. That matters: you share one budget, one reserve fund and one board across about 731 suites, which spreads big repair costs widely and generally keeps fees per square foot moderate.

The sources do not agree on the developer. Condos.ca lists H&R Developments, while Wikipedia credits Lanterra Developments, which also built Burano across Bay Street. I would treat the corporation’s own documents as the authority if this matters to you.

How tall, and how many floors

The storey count is another place where sources differ. Wikipedia gives the towers as 45 and 35 floors, while condos.ca lists 33 floors for the building it describes. The difference likely comes from counting one tower or the other. When you look at a specific suite, check which tower it is in and how high it sits.

Height matters here because Bay Street near College is a corridor of tall buildings. Upper floors look over Queen’s Park, the university and the lake depending on direction, while lower floors on the Bay side face neighbouring towers at close range.

Compact suites with a good fee list

Condos.ca puts the suite range at about 425 to 1,784 sq ft. Most suites are one-bedrooms, one-plus-dens and modest two-bedrooms built for professionals, students’ parents and investors, with a smaller number of larger plans.

Compact plans are the norm. Many of the one-bedrooms are under 600 sq ft, so look closely at how the space is used: whether the den is a real room with a door or an alcove, whether the kitchen is along one wall, and how much storage there is. A well-planned 550 sq ft suite can live better than a badly planned 650.

The fee inclusions are the strong point. Condos.ca lists common elements, heat, air conditioning, building insurance, parking and water as included. Many newer buildings nearby meter heat and cooling separately and charge for parking, so compare total monthly cost rather than the fee alone.

Condos.ca also lists a pet restriction. I have not seen the exact rule, so if you have a pet, read the declaration and rules in the status certificate before you make an offer.

Living near Bay and College

This is one of the most practical locations downtown. The hospital district along University Avenue, the University of Toronto, Queen’s Park and the government offices around it are all walkable, and College Park and the shops along Yonge are a few blocks east. That is why the building has a deep pool of tenants and owner-occupiers who work nearby.

The streets right around the building, Grosvenor and Grenville, are short and relatively quiet, which helps. Bay Street itself is busy, and the area keeps adding towers, so check the City of Toronto development applications map for anything planned that could affect your view.

The other daily reality is scale. With about 731 suites, the lobby, elevators and parcel room are busy at rush hour, and move-ins are frequent. That is normal for a building this size, and it is the trade-off for spreading costs across so many owners. If you want a quieter building, compare a smaller one nearby before deciding, and ask how many elevators serve your tower.

What Murano costs

Condos.ca puts the building average at about $900 per square foot. That sits below the newest towers along Bay and Yonge and above many older buildings in the area, which is about where a 2009–2010 building with a strong fee list should land.

When I checked, four suites were for sale and five for lease. Asking prices ran from about $455,000 to $938,000, with one-bedroom and one-plus-den suites asking roughly $455,000 to $500,000 and the larger plans, including, roughly $579,000 to $938,000.

Monthly fees across those listings ran from about $449 to $929, or roughly $0.90 per square foot. With heat, cooling, water and parking listed in the fee, that is reasonable for downtown. If you want a value check on a specific suite, I can pull comparables through my building sold report.

Building specifications

Amenities at Murano

Condos.ca lists a concierge, party room, meeting room, guest suites, sauna and visitor parking. It is a practical package for a commuter building; check what fitness facilities are available if a gym matters to you. The sauna and guest suites are the pieces owners tend to use most.

Jatin’s honest take on Murano

Murano — 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.