One Rainsford, 1 Rainsford Rd: 28 Steel-Framed Suites on Queen East

One Rainsford is the building I think of when a Beach homeowner tells me they would only sell their house for a condo that feels like a house. There are just 28 suites, the smallest close to 1,000 square feet, with two-storey plans and rooftop terraces at the top. It almost never comes up for sale, and when it does the buyer pool is small and specific. I’m Jatin Dua, RE/MAX Quantum Realty.

A Queen Street mid-rise built like a template

When The Riedel Group launched One Rainsford in 2010, UrbanToronto described it as a near-perfect example of what the City’s Avenues and Mid-Rise Buildings Study was asking for: six storeys, terraced back from the street, with shops along the whole Queen Street frontage. The developer called it the result of about ten years of preparation.

Riedel is better known for luxury custom homes than condos, and it partnered with Robert Mitchell of Mitchell & Associates, a long-time loft builder in the east end. The architect was Richard Ziegler, whose firm UrbanToronto also lists on Beech House on Kingston Road.

That house-builder background shows in the suite sizes. This was never meant to be an entry-level building, and it is not one.

It is also worth remembering how early this was. In 2010, mid-rise infill on the Beach stretch of Queen Street was rare, and later east-end mid-rises such as The Southwood and Beech House on Kingston Road arrived at a similar six-storey scale. One Rainsford was one of the first to show it could be done here.

Steel, stone and glass

The construction is unusual for a Toronto condo. Instead of the reinforced concrete used in almost every residential building, One Rainsford has a structural steel frame. The developers said they chose it for cost, flexibility and ease of building.

The ground floor is dark charcoal clay brick and glass. The main residential floors are clad in natural stone set on an aluminum honeycomb backing, and the penthouse level is fully glazed, with private rooftop terraces above it. Construction started in late 2011 and the building was close to finished by early 2013, although the corporation did not register until April 2015.

Steel and stone are durable, but they are less common in condos, which means fewer contractors and reserve fund engineers work on them every day. I want the reserve fund study to address the cladding attachment and the roof terraces specifically, not with generic line items.

Single-storey and two-storey suites

The 28 suites are a mix of single-level and two-level plans. Condos.ca lists sizes from about 968 to 3,124 square feet, so even the smallest suite is a comfortable two-bedroom by condo standards, and the largest is bigger than many Beach houses.

Two-storey suites inside a condo give you a townhouse feel with an elevator and someone else looking after the roof. The penthouses add rooftop terraces, which in the Beach can mean views over the trees toward the lake, depending on the suite.

With so few suites, every unit is close to unique. Comparing one with another is harder than in a tower with stacked identical plans, and that affects pricing, as I explain below.

The corner of Queen and Rainsford

The building fronts Queen Street East a block from Woodbine Avenue, at the western end of the Beach strip. Retail fills the Queen Street level, and Rainsford Road runs north from the corner into a residential street of houses.

You are on the Queen streetcar line, close to the boardwalk, Woodbine Beach and the Queen Street shops and restaurants. The automatic panel on this page covers transit, schools and Walk Score in detail.

Queen Street East in the Beach has stayed mostly low-rise, and mid-rise infill like this one is still the exception. That scarcity is part of why large suites here hold their appeal.

The other side of a Queen Street address is summer. The Beach draws crowds on warm weekends, and parking on the side streets gets tight. With a parking space in your fee and the streetcar at the door, that matters less to owners than to their visitors.

Large suites, rare trades

The building average sits around $812 per square foot. That can look low next to newer buildings in the east end, but large suites almost always trade for less per square foot than small ones. A 2,000-square-foot suite at this rate is still a substantial number.

There were no active listings when I wrote this, and with only 28 suites there may be none for months at a time. The TRREB panel on this page will often show a sample too small for a median. Pricing a suite here means looking at the few past sales, at similar boutique buildings and at Beach freeholds of the same size.

The fee includes common elements, heat, air conditioning, building insurance, parking and water. That is one of the broadest inclusion lists you will find, and it means your own bills are mostly hydro for the suite, plus cable and internet.

In a building this small, the fee also has to cover a full building’s worth of fixed costs, from insurance to the elevator contract, over very few owners. Expect a higher fee per suite than in a tower, and judge it against what a house of the same size costs to run.

Building specifications

Amenities at One Rainsford

There is no gym, pool or concierge here, just a garage, bike storage, visitor parking and a security system. For a 28-suite building that is the right call; the terraces and the Beach do the work an amenity floor would do elsewhere.

Jatin’s honest take on One Rainsford

One Rainsford — frequently asked questions

Looking at Leslieville, Riverdale, the Beaches, Danforth and Leaside more broadly? Start with my Toronto community guide — the neighbourhoods, what each pocket is like, and how they compare.