One St Johns Place Lofts: 15 Suites in a Junction Office Conversion

One St Johns Place Lofts is about as small as a Toronto condo gets: 15 suites in a converted five-storey concrete office building at the west end of the Junction’s Dundas Street strip. Buyers come for the light, the split-level top floor and a fee that even covers hydro, and they stay because they know every neighbour by name. I’m Jatin Dua, RE/MAX Quantum Realty.

An office building turned into 15 homes

Most Junction lofts started life as factories. This one started as offices: a concrete building with a horizontally banded facade, converted to residential use in 2000. That origin explains its character. You get regular window bands and a solid concrete frame rather than timber posts and old brick.

With only 15 suites spread over five floors, there are roughly three homes per level. Hallways are short, the elevator is rarely busy, and the building behaves more like a shared house than a condominium tower.

The conversion is now more than 25 years old. The concrete shell is the durable part; the windows, roof and mechanical systems from the 2000 conversion are the parts I would look at hardest.

Concrete office conversions also tend to be quieter between floors than timber-frame factory lofts, because the slabs carry less sound. That is one practical reason buyers who have lived in older brick-and-beam lofts sometimes prefer a building like this.

Layouts, ceilings and the top floor

Suites run from roughly 674 to 1,367 square feet, a range that covers one-bedroom lofts up to larger two-bedroom plans. Office floor plates tend to give deep, open rooms with windows along one or two sides, so ask how far the bedroom sits from the nearest window before you assume it is bright.

Marketing for top-floor suites has described split-level layouts with the bedroom upstairs, nine-foot ceilings and access to a rooftop deck with city views. That top floor is where the building is at its best, and where demand is strongest when a unit comes up.

Lower floors sit closer to the street and the Dundas Street activity. That suits buyers who like a lively main street, and less so light sleepers.

Storage is the question I would ask on every showing. Converted office buildings rarely have the generous lockers of a purpose-built condo, so confirm whether the suite comes with a locker, and where bikes and seasonal gear actually go.

A fee that includes hydro

Very few Toronto condos include electricity in the monthly fee. Here the fee covers common elements, hydro, building insurance, water and parking. That makes the fee look high next to buildings that bill hydro separately, so compare total monthly housing cost, not the fee line alone.

Bundled hydro also means owners share the cost of each other’s usage. In a 15-unit building that is usually manageable, but it is worth asking the board whether there have been increases tied to energy costs.

The bigger structural point is size. With 15 owners, any large repair is shared among very few people. Read the reserve fund study, check whether a special assessment has been levied or discussed in recent minutes, and look at the contingency balance relative to upcoming work.

Ask for the most recent budget as well. It shows how much of the fee goes to utilities versus the reserve, which tells you more about the building’s health than the fee total does.

The Junction on your doorstep

Dundas Street West through the Junction is one of the city’s better main streets: independent restaurants, bars, cafés, yoga studios, housewares and art shops, with an old-town feel that newer neighbourhoods cannot copy. Living here puts all of that on your doorstep.

The trade-off of living on a main street is activity at night and on weekends, when the Junction’s bars and restaurants are busiest. Visit on a Friday evening as well as a weekday afternoon before you decide, and listen for it from inside the suite you are considering.

The rest of the area is mostly low-rise housing, with the parks and schools listed in the data panel close by. If a view or sun exposure matters to you, check the City’s development applications map for anything proposed on the surrounding blocks before you buy.

Pricing at One St Johns Place

With only 15 suites, sales are infrequent and a building-wide price per square foot is not a reliable figure. When I price a suite here I look at its own size, its floor and whether it has rooftop access, then compare it with other boutique Junction lofts and recent sales of similar size.

There was one active listing when I last checked, which is typical. Because one listing on its own cannot be published as a price benchmark, I would rather walk you through the aggregate sales history in the data panel, or my building sold report, than anchor you on a single asking number.

Remember to compare total monthly cost. A fee that includes hydro, water and parking can be cheaper overall than a lower fee in a building where you pay those separately.

Low turnover cuts both ways for a seller. Fewer competing listings help, but appraisers and lenders also have fewer in-building comparables to lean on, so a well-documented suite, with floor plans and a clean status certificate ready, sells more smoothly here than in most boutique buildings.

Building specifications

Amenities at One St Johns Place Lofts

There is no gym or party room, and in a 15-suite building there would not be the owners to fund one. What you get is an elevator, BBQ permission and parking included in your fee, which matters more day to day than an amenity floor you rarely use.

Jatin’s honest take on One St Johns Place Lofts

One St Johns Place Lofts — frequently asked questions

Looking at the Junction, Corso Italia, Hillcrest Village and west-central Toronto more broadly? Start with my Toronto community guide — the neighbourhoods, what each pocket is like, and how they compare.