Queen’s Park Place, 62 Wellesley St W: 101 Large Suites Near the Park

Queen’s Park Place is a building for people who have stopped looking at one-bedrooms. Greenwin finished it in 1981 with just 101 suites over 18 floors, and the smallest is still more than 1,000 square feet. It is also one of the oldest condos in this part of downtown, which is both its appeal and the thing you have to check most carefully. I’m Jatin Dua, RE/MAX Quantum Realty.

No small suites at all

Suites at Queen’s Park Place run from about 1,081 to 1,783 square feet. There are no studios and no compact one-bedrooms. The two listings I reviewed were a two-bedroom plus den and a three-bedroom plus two dens, which tells you the kind of household this building was designed for.

With 101 suites over 18 storeys, the building averages fewer than six suites a floor. That means short corridors, few shared walls and a good share of corner and two-exposure layouts, which is closer to living in a house than in most downtown towers.

Listings describe large principal rooms and solariums, the glassed-in space off the living area that owners use as an office, a reading room or extra dining space. In a 1,400-square-foot suite, a solarium can be the difference between needing a separate office and not.

One of the older condos on this stretch, and a small owner base

Registered in 1981, Queen’s Park Place is one of the earliest condominiums in the Bay and Wellesley area, older than the Polo Club towers on Bay Street and well older than the newer glass towers that now surround it. Greenwin, the developer, is a long-established Toronto company.

The building is a member of the Bay Corridor Community Association, the residents’ group founded by nearby condo buildings that now represents owners across the area between College and Charles Streets.

Age cuts both ways. The suites are generous because they were built for owner-occupiers in an era before investor-driven floor plans. But a building of more than 40 years has already been through at least one cycle of major repairs and is due for others. How those were funded, and what is coming next, is the most important thing to learn before you buy.

A small building is run by a small group of owners. With 101 suites, a single large repair is shared among fewer people than in a 400-suite tower, so each owner’s share of any shortfall is larger. That is the main reason the reserve fund study matters even more here than in a bigger building.

The other side is that owners in small buildings tend to know each other, attend meetings and keep a close eye on spending. Read the last two years of board minutes in the status certificate package; they will tell you a lot about how this building is run.

Parking included, hydro on you

The fee covers common elements, heat, air conditioning, building insurance, parking and water. Hydro is not on the list, so expect a separate monthly bill.

Fees here are high in dollars because the suites are large. Across the two active listings, monthly fees were about $1,574 to $1,829. Those are big numbers, but they are spread over suites of 1,400 square feet and up, and they already cover parking, heat and cooling that many buildings bill separately.

Do not compare these fees against a new 600-square-foot one-bedroom. Compare against another building with suites of similar size, and add parking and heat to the other side if they are billed separately there.

Wellesley West day to day

The building is on Wellesley Street West, between Bay Street and Queen’s Park Circle, and takes its name from that proximity. Some upper suites look west toward the park and the University of Toronto.

Wellesley West between Bay and the park is a short block, quieter than Bay or Yonge, with the Legislature grounds at one end and the shops and services of Bay Street at the other. Transit, schools and Walk Score are shown in the automatic panel on this page.

Nearby, the Century Plaza at 24 Wellesley Street West is the other older building on this street, a 1991 tower of 349 suites averaging about $654 per square foot. It is larger, with more suites per floor and smaller average layouts. If you are weighing the two, the question is whether you want Queen’s Park Place’s size and small owner base or the Century Plaza’s broader choice of suites.

What Queen’s Park Place costs per square foot

The building averages about $610 per square foot on condos.ca, one of the lowest figures for a condo this central. Two things drive that: the age of the building and the size of the suites. Large suites almost always trade at a lower price per foot than small ones.

For context, Wellesley on the Park, a short walk east at 11 Wellesley Street West and finished in 2021, averages about $1,028 per square foot on condos.ca. The newer building gives you new finishes and amenities; this one gives you close to twice the floor area for a similar total budget.

When I wrote this there were two suites for sale and none for rent, with asking prices from about $950,000 to about $1.29 million. Two listings is a very thin market, so ask me for the building sold report and look at actual sales before you set a budget.

Building specifications

Amenities at Queen’s Park Place

An indoor pool, a squash court, a sauna, a gym and rooftop gardens is a full package for a building of only 101 suites, and the cost of running it is shared among relatively few owners. That is part of why the fees are what they are, and it is worth asking how the pool and courts are funded in the reserve study.

Jatin’s honest take on Queen’s Park Place

Queen’s Park Place — frequently asked questions

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