Parkside Towns at Saturday, 155 Downsview Park Blvd: Mattamy Towns

Parkside Towns is the townhouse side of Mattamy’s Saturday community, and it answers a question I hear from young families all the time: can I buy something new, with three bedrooms and a park at the door, inside the City of Toronto, without paying detached prices? Here the answer is a qualified yes. The qualifications are what this review is about. I’m Jatin Dua, RE/MAX Quantum Realty.

New townhouses on the old base lands

Downsview Park sits on land that was a military airfield and air force base for most of the last century, before it was set aside as a federal urban park. Mattamy’s Saturday community was built along the park’s southwest edge, between Keele Street, Downsview Park Boulevard and George Butchart Drive. The first phase was a 10-storey condominium with an affordable rental building beside it, and Parkside Towns followed as a low-rise phase.

That history is why there is so little else like this in the city. New townhouses inside Toronto are rare, and new townhouses that back onto a park this size are rarer still. For buyers coming from a condo apartment who want stairs, a front door and green space, that combination is the whole point.

Graziani + Corazza Architects designed the community, and Mattamy built it. Mattamy is a large, established builder, and new homes in Ontario come with Tarion warranty coverage, but a builder’s name tells you less than this corporation’s own records. Read those rather than the brochure.

Stacked towns and classic towns, in one corporation

When the phase was marketed, UrbanToronto described six blocks mixing three-storey townhomes and four-storey stacked towns, with nine floor plans of two to four bedrooms and roughly 800 to 2,000 square feet. Condos.ca records the complex as two storeys with 42 units, which does not match. The difference probably comes from how each source counts storeys and units in stacked blocks, but check the declaration for the final count.

The plans differ a lot. The smallest stacked units were two-bedroom homes of about 800 square feet with the living space on one level and bedrooms above, and a lower patio. The mid-size stacked plans had three bedrooms and an ensuite, with balconies on the upper homes. The largest classic town ran to four bedrooms over several floors, with a two-car garage at the bottom and a terrace and balcony.

So two homes at the same address can be very different purchases. A lower stacked unit has someone living above. An upper one has stairs to climb and someone below. A classic town is closer to a small house. Ask which plan the home is and get the floor plan, not just the bedroom count.

Fees, parking and what new means here

The current listings’ fees work out to about $0.70 per square foot, or roughly $650 to $670 a month across the three homes for sale. That is in the normal range for a new condominium townhouse in Toronto, but it is not low, and the corporation is young enough that its first reserve fund study is still shaping the budget.

Condos.ca does not list what the fee covers. Ask whether water is included or metered per home, and expect to pay your own heat and hydro, as you would in most townhouses. Parking also varies by plan: the largest classic towns had their own garages, but the stacked plans were not described with parking, so confirm whether a space comes with the home and where it is.

Because the complex was finished in 2022, any home here still sits inside the Tarion warranty periods for some items. Ask the seller whether warranty claims were filed and what the corporation’s performance audit found, since that work protects the common elements in the early years.

The park, and the plans next door

Daily life here is about the park: lawns, paths, sports fields and event space a short walk from your door, rather than a strip plaza. The panel on this page shows the shops, schools and transit near the complex, so use it for the details.

The larger change is the former Downsview airport and Bombardier campus. The City’s Update Downsview study covers the lands between Keele Street and Wilson Heights Boulevard, from Sheppard Avenue down to Wilson Avenue and Highway 401, and plans a long-term complete community with new homes, jobs, parks and services. For an owner here, that likely means years of construction nearby and eventually much more around you.

What homes here are asking

At the time of writing there were three homes for sale and three for lease. The homes for sale were asking between $599,900 and $795,000, and the spread is wide, which tells you that plan, level and finishes move the price here as much as size does. Fees on those listings averaged about $0.70 per square foot.

The data panel on this page shows recorded sales and leases. For comparables, use resales in the Saturday community and other newer condominium townhouses in North York, then compare the price per square foot against the 10-storey Saturday condo next door. If a stacked town with its own entrance is priced close to a mid-rise suite per square foot, the extra space and the front door usually make it the better buy for a family.

With several homes on the market at once, buyers have more negotiating room than in a small complex where one home trades a year. I can pull the full comparables for the community through my building sold report.

Building specifications

Jatin’s honest take on Parkside Towns at Saturday

Parkside Towns at Saturday — frequently asked questions

Looking at Downsview, Weston, York University Heights, Rexdale and northwest Toronto more broadly? Start with my Toronto community guide — the neighbourhoods, what each pocket is like, and how they compare.