Pavilion Del Sol, 5 Kenneth Ave: Big 1989 Suites With Hydro in the Fee

Pavilion Del Sol is the building I show to people who want house-sized space at Yonge and Sheppard without paying new-tower prices for it. Most of its suites are two-bedroom-plus-den plans, the fee covers almost every utility including hydro, and it sits on a side street rather than on Sheppard itself. The catch is the age of the building and a fee that looks large until you take it apart. I’m Jatin Dua, RE/MAX Quantum Realty.

A building of two-plus-dens

The single most useful fact about this building is its suite mix. Strata.ca’s breakdown shows roughly 64% two-bedroom-plus-den plans, 22% one-plus-dens, and only a handful of one-bedrooms, studios and three-bedrooms. Newer towers around Yonge and Sheppard are built the other way round, with most suites under 700 sq ft.

That makes Pavilion Del Sol a downsizer’s and young family’s building more than an investor’s one. The two-plus-dens fill the upper end of a size range that condos.ca puts at roughly 508 to 1,460 sq ft. You get separate rooms rather than one open box, which is exactly what people leaving a house tend to miss in a new condo.

The developer was a single-purpose company, Five Kenneth Avenue Ltd., which is common for buildings of this era and tells you little about who actually designed or built it. I could not find an architect on record.

An all-inclusive fee, and how to read it

Very few Toronto condos include hydro in the fee any more. Here the fee covers cable TV, air conditioning, common elements, heat, hydro, building insurance, parking and water. In practice your only regular household bill on top is internet, and possibly a phone line.

Strata.ca puts the building’s fee at about $0.94 per square foot, against a neighbourhood average around $0.79. On a large suite that produces a big monthly number, and buyers comparing it with a new tower’s fee often stop there. The fair comparison is fee plus hydro plus heating and cooling plus parking at the new building, against the fee alone here.

The fee is still a real cost to carry, and at the size of these suites it is the line that most affects your monthly budget and, later, your resale buyer’s mortgage qualification. Ask for the current budget and the last few years of fee increases, so you know whether the trend is steady or climbing.

Kenneth Avenue, not Sheppard Avenue

Kenneth Avenue runs north and south just east of Yonge, and that one-block offset matters. You are close to the Yonge and Sheppard interchange of Lines 1 and 4, Yonge Sheppard Centre, Longo’s and Whole Foods, and the restaurants along Yonge, but the building does not face the traffic and construction on the main streets.

Willowdale East is one of the most intensified parts of North York. The skyline around this building is now dominated by much newer towers, and redevelopment is still moving along Yonge and Sheppard. For an owner here that cuts both ways: more shops and services every year, and the near-constant presence of cranes. Before you buy, check the City’s development map for applications on Kenneth and the streets immediately around it.

Day to day, this is an errands-on-foot location. Spring Garden Market and the Longo’s at Yonge and Sheppard cover groceries, Empress Walk has the cinema, and the Gibson House Museum and the parkettes along the side streets give you somewhere quieter to walk. Willowdale Park is close by for kids and dogs. It is a building for people who value convenience over scenery.

Highway 401 is a few minutes’ drive, which is part of why the parking that comes with these suites is so valued. Condos.ca reports current listings offering one or two spaces. Confirm exactly what is deeded or assigned to the suite you are looking at.

What the sources disagree on

This building’s public records are less consistent than I would like. Condos.ca lists 140 suites and REW lists 145. Condos.ca gives 1989 as the build year and REW gives 1988; the corporation itself was registered in January 1989.

Management is the bigger one. Condos.ca lists ICC Property Management, while REW lists Andrejs Management. One of those listings is out of date. Ask the listing agent or the management office directly, and look at who signed the status certificate, because the quality of management in a 37-year-old building matters more than almost anything else.

REW also states that pets and rentals are allowed, while condos.ca shows a pet restriction. I would not rely on either. The declaration and rules in the status certificate are the only answer that counts.

Pricing: large suites, lower per-foot numbers

Per-square-foot figures for this building vary by source. Condos.ca shows an average around $464 per square foot, while strata.ca’s recent sales put one-plus-dens at about $625 and two-plus-dens at about $607. The gap probably reflects different time windows and samples, so I treat the strata figures as closer to recent reality and still check closed sales myself.

At the time of writing there were five suites for sale and none for lease. Asking prices ran from $399,000 to $718,000, with the three two-plus-den listings between $609,000 and $718,000. Their monthly fees ran from about $1,566 to $1,659, and across all five listings fees ranged from $872 to $1,659.

The broad point is that a large suite here costs a fraction of the per-foot price of a new tower a few minutes away. Strata.ca reports units selling a little under asking on average, after a couple of weeks on market, with a low chance of competing offers. That is a buyer-friendly building, not a bidding-war one.

Building specifications

Amenities at Pavilion Del Sol

An indoor pool and sauna, a rooftop deck, and staffed security cover what most owners here actually use. It is a practical 1980s package rather than a resort lobby, and it keeps the building out of the amenity arms race that drives up operating costs in newer towers.

Jatin’s honest take on Pavilion Del Sol

Pavilion Del Sol — frequently asked questions

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