Rezen Condos, 205 Frederick St: A Quiet Mid-Rise Near St. Lawrence Market

Rezen is the kind of building people walk past without noticing, and that is part of its appeal. It is a 13-storey Times Group mid-rise at Frederick and Adelaide, finished in 2009, with a rooftop lounge, a modest suite count and St. Lawrence Market a short walk away. It rarely has more than a couple of listings at once, so when the right suite comes up you need to be ready. I’m Jatin Dua, RE/MAX Quantum Realty.

Small, deliberate and a little zen

Times Group marketed Rezen in 2007 around a calm, zen-inspired idea, and the name came from that. The building itself is glass, steel and brick with clean lines, sitting at a scale that fits the low-rise warehouse and residential blocks between Jarvis and Sherbourne rather than dominating them.

At 13 storeys and well under 150 suites, it is a genuinely small building by downtown standards. That has practical consequences: fewer people sharing elevators, a board that tends to be easier to reach, and a short list of neighbours you will actually recognise. It also means a smaller pool of owners funding the reserve fund, which makes the reserve fund study more important, not less.

The ground floor was planned with live/work and retail units facing the street. Those units are different from the suites upstairs in both use and price, so if you are looking at one, check what the declaration and zoning permit before you assume you can run a business from it.

Suites and the original suite mix

When it launched, Rezen was mostly one-bedrooms and one-plus-dens, with a smaller number of two-bedrooms. Current records show suites from about 549 square feet up to roughly 2,137, so a few large suites exist at the top, but the typical trade here is a one-plus-den in the 700-square-foot range.

A Globe and Mail profile of one suite, a couple of years after completion, described hardwood floors, in-suite laundry, an exterior locker and a kitchen run along one wall to open up the living space. Launch materials also highlighted environmental touches: low-emission paints and carpets, low-flow fixtures, Energy Star appliances and bicycle parking. Most original finishes will have been updated by now, so judge each suite on its own condition.

The one-plus-den is the plan to study carefully. In some buildings the den is a real room that can take a bed or a desk with a door; in others it is an alcove off the living room. Ask for the floor plan, measure the den, and price it accordingly, because a usable den adds far more on resale than one that is just a widened hallway.

Size records do not perfectly agree. Condos.ca lists 136 suites, while 2007 launch coverage described 144 plus the ground-floor units. Some of that gap may come from how live/work and retail units are counted. The declaration is the number to rely on.

Parking: check it suite by suite

One detail from the launch is worth knowing. When Rezen was first sold, parking was offered only to buyers of two-bedroom suites, which suggests the garage is small relative to the number of suites. Many one-bedroom owners will not have a space.

Condos.ca lists parking among the fee inclusions, but that only matters if the suite actually comes with a space. Before you offer, confirm in the listing and the status certificate whether the unit has parking and a locker, and whether each is owned or exclusive-use. Visitor parking is listed among the amenities.

The St. Lawrence and Old Town side of downtown

Frederick and Adelaide sits in the older east end of the core, between the St. Lawrence Market area to the south-west and Moss Park to the north. St. Lawrence Market, the Front Street restaurants and the King East design district are all within walking distance, and the financial district is a reasonable walk west.

This is a mixed block. You have converted warehouses, newer mid-rises and some commercial uses close by, and the area keeps changing as new projects fill gaps along Adelaide, Richmond and King. Adelaide is a one-way arterial, so suites facing it will hear traffic. The automatic panel covers transit, schools and Walk Score.

For daily errands, the market and the shops along Front and King cover most of what you need on foot, and the east end of the core has become a strong restaurant district over the past decade. If you work downtown and want to walk to the office without paying King West or financial district prices, this pocket makes a lot of sense.

Price per square foot and the fee

Rezen averages about $834 per square foot. That is in line with other 2000s mid-rises east of Jarvis and below the newer King East and St. Lawrence buildings, which tend to ask more for newer finishes and larger amenity packages.

Fees across current listings work out to about $0.94 per square foot, and they include heat, air conditioning, water and parking, along with common elements and insurance. That is a fair number for a small building with bundled utilities, where fixed costs like concierge and security are spread across fewer suites.

At the time of writing there were two active listings, both one-plus-den suites in the 700 to 799 square foot range asking from $549,900 to $649,900 with monthly fees from $662 to $750. A $100,000 spread on similar-sized suites tells you condition, floor and exposure matter a lot here. My building sold report can show what has actually traded.

Building specifications

Amenities at Rezen Condos

The rooftop lounge, launched with cabana-style seating and barbecue stations, is the amenity that matters here; the rest is a compact gym, yoga room and party room. There is no pool, which helps keep the fee reasonable for a small building. Ask how recently the gym and rooftop were refreshed.

Jatin’s honest take on Rezen Condos

Rezen Condos — frequently asked questions

Looking at Church–Wellesley, Corktown, Moss Park and Cabbagetown more broadly? Start with my Toronto community guide — the neighbourhoods, what each pocket is like, and how they compare.