Pears on the Avenue, 170 Avenue Rd: Menkes’ Boutique Tower at Davenport

Pears on the Avenue is a mid-sized Menkes building on Avenue Road just north of Davenport, the point where Yorkville turns into the Annex. It has the amenities of a big tower, a podium of stone-faced townhouses on a quiet side street, and a fee that includes parking. It costs more per square foot than some neighbours, and it helps to understand why. I’m Jatin Dua, RE/MAX Quantum Realty.

Glass on Avenue Road, stone on Pears Avenue

Menkes launched the building in April 2010 as a boutique tower, and Page + Steele / IBI Group gave it two faces. The tower is clad in glass, with ground-floor retail on Avenue Road, while the three-storey podium along Pears Avenue is made up of townhouse-style suites with stone fronts that fit the scale of the side street.

That split is the most useful thing to understand about the building. A podium townhouse on Pears Avenue is a very different home from a tower suite above Avenue Road: quieter, closer to the ground, often with its own street presence, and priced on its own terms. Decide which of the two you are actually shopping for.

Munge Leung designed the interiors, including the lobby, the amenity spaces, and the kitchens and bathrooms, and NAK Design did the landscaped terrace on top of the podium.

The building also changed between launch and completion. The 2010 sales material described 133 suites; later records show 170 to 175. That kind of growth usually means some plans were split or reconfigured, so the floor plan in an old brochure may not match the suite you are viewing. Work from the registered plan and the actual suite.

Layouts and ceilings

Recorded suite sizes run from about 486 square feet to roughly 1,974 square feet, so the building covers everything from a compact one-bedroom to a large family-sized suite. Current listings range from a one-plus-den in the 600s to two-bedrooms in the 900s and larger.

The original specifications called for 9-foot smooth ceilings and engineered wood flooring in the main living areas. Many suites use an L-shaped living, dining and kitchen layout, which tends to make better use of the window wall than a long galley plan. Terrace suites were offered from the start, and a suite with real outdoor space commands a premium here.

At launch, Menkes said the building’s suites would start at about $700 per square foot. Today the building averages about $1,059, which gives you a sense of how this part of Avenue Road has moved over the past 15 years.

Amenities of a much bigger building

For a building of about 170 suites, the amenity list is long. The lobby rises through multiple storeys with a spiral staircase (described as double-height at launch and three storeys in later material), a spa-style indoor pool with a whirlpool, a gym, a yoga studio and meditation deck, a party room with a catering kitchen, a screening room, a boardroom and a guest suite, plus the landscaped podium terrace with cabanas.

The cost of running that package is shared across fewer owners than in a large tower. That is part of why fees here are not low, and it is the main thing I would look at in the budget: how much the pool and staffing cost each year, and whether the reserve fund is keeping pace.

Between Yorkville and the Annex

The building sits at the top of Yorkville. The shops and restaurants of Yorkville Avenue and Bloor Street are a short walk south, the University of Toronto and the Royal Ontario Museum are close, and the residential streets of the Annex start just to the west.

Avenue Road itself is a busy arterial, and suites facing it hear it. Suites facing west or over Pears Avenue are generally quieter, so ask about orientation as well as floor. The data panel on this page covers transit, Walk Score and nearby food and parks.

Price per square foot, and why parking matters

The building averages about $1,059 per square foot. That is above The Yorkville at 32 Davenport (about $970) and the Residences of Yorkville Plaza (about $983), and below Museum House (about $1,132) and The Florian (about $1,259). You are paying for a smaller, newer-feeling building with a full amenity package.

Three suites were for sale at the time of writing, asking from about $639,000 to about $1,829,000. Fees on those listings ran from roughly $615 to $1,260 a month, which works out to roughly $0.90 to $1.05 per square foot on the suites where size is known.

That fee includes air conditioning, heat, water, building insurance and parking, which is a more complete package than many nearby buildings offer. When you compare it with a building where parking and cooling are extra, the difference in monthly cost is smaller than the headline fees suggest. My building sold report shows what has actually closed.

With only three suites listed, there is not much active choice, and the three sit in very different size bands. If you are looking for a specific type, such as a two-bedroom with a terrace, it may be worth registering for alerts and waiting rather than stretching for whatever is available this month.

Building specifications

Amenities at Pears on the Avenue

You get a pool, a yoga studio and a screening room in a building small enough that the lobby never feels like a hotel. The podium terrace with cabanas is the part residents use most in summer, so look at it in person.

Jatin’s honest take on Pears on the Avenue

Pears on the Avenue — frequently asked questions

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