Riverside Lofts, 747 Queen St E: 12 Black-Brick Lofts, Parking in Fee

Riverside Lofts is one of the smallest condo buildings on Queen East, and that is both its charm and its risk. Twelve suites, four storeys, black brick outside and 10-foot ceilings with polished concrete inside, right on the main street in Riverside. Buildings this small almost never come up for sale, and when they do, you need to look at them differently. I’m Jatin Dua, RE/MAX Quantum Realty.

Twelve suites behind a black-brick front

Riverside Lofts was one of Streetcar Developments’ early boutique projects on this stretch of Queen East, finished in 2007, before the Riverside strip filled in with restaurants and new mid-rises. The building is a compact four-storey block on the main street, and its most distinctive feature from the sidewalk is the cladding: dark, almost iridescent black brick that sets it apart from the red brick around it.

Inside, it follows the soft-loft formula Streetcar used across its early buildings. Suites have 10-foot ceilings, exposed heating ducts and polished concrete floors. It is new construction with loft finishes, not a converted warehouse, so you get straight walls and modern windows rather than original beams and brick.

I could not confirm the architect from a reliable published source, so I have left that out. If it matters to you, the original disclosure documents or the condo corporation should be able to tell you.

The developer matters more than usual in a building this small. Streetcar has been working since 2002 and describes itself as a boutique mid-rise builder; most of its early projects are on this part of Queen East, from Edge Lofts by the Don River to the two lofts it built in the Beaches. That track record of small, design-led buildings is part of why these suites hold their appeal.

What living in a 12-unit building actually means

A building this small runs very differently from a tower. There is no concierge, no gym and no party room. You will likely know every neighbour by name, and decisions about the building are made by a handful of owners. For some people that is the whole point. For others, it is the reason to buy somewhere bigger.

Money is the bigger issue. In a 12-suite building, every repair is shared among 12 owners. A roof, a garage membrane or a brick repair that would barely move the needle in a 300-unit tower can land as a real cost here. That does not make small buildings bad, but it makes the reserve fund study and the status certificate the most important documents you will read.

Resale is the other side of the same coin. With only 12 suites, very few sales happen in a year, so comparables inside the building are thin. Expect your agent to lean on similar boutique lofts nearby, such as Streetcar’s own Edge Lofts to the west, when pricing an offer.

Layouts and the Queen East location

Condos.ca shows suites from about 682 to 1,006 sq ft, so this is a building of one-bedrooms, one-plus-dens and two-bedrooms rather than family-size suites. With 10-foot ceilings, a 700 sq ft suite here feels noticeably larger than the same footprint in a standard tower.

The address puts you on Queen East between Broadview and Leslieville, with cafes, restaurants and the main-street shops at your door. Queen and Broadview is just west, where Streetcar bought the 1893 Broadview House to turn it into a boutique hotel. Streetcar has kept building in this area, and the larger Riverside Square plan on the old Toyota dealership lands near the DVP was proposed in 2014 with retail and a new public plaza.

The biggest change ahead is the Ontario Line. Metrolinx is building Leslieville Station at Queen and De Grassi, close to this building, so expect construction on Queen East for some time and a better transit connection when it opens. The automatic panel on this page covers transit as it stands today.

Pricing and the fee that covers almost everything

Condos.ca puts the building average at about $938 per sq ft. That is a premium over larger soft-loft buildings nearby, and it reflects how rarely suites here trade. Two suites were listed at the time of writing, asking from $788,000 to just over $1,024,000. Two listings is a very small sample, so I would treat that as a rough bracket rather than a benchmark.

The fee is the strong point. Monthly fees on the current listings run from roughly $820 to $940, and they cover common elements, heat, water, air conditioning, building insurance and parking. Very few buildings include parking and cooling in the fee. When you compare total monthly cost against a newer building where you pay heat, cooling and parking yourself, this one looks much better than the headline fee suggests.

What the fee does not tell you is how healthy the reserve fund is. In a 12-suite building, I would look at the reserve fund balance per suite and the planned work over the next ten years before I looked at anything else.

When I price a suite in a building like this, I do not rely on the building average alone. I look at sales here over several years, then at recent sales in comparable boutique lofts on Queen East, and adjust for the fee inclusions. A suite with parking and heat bundled in is worth more than one in a building where those are extra, and buyers who skip that adjustment tend to underbid and lose the suite.

Building specifications

Amenities at Riverside Lofts

There is essentially no amenity package here, and that is normal for a 12-suite building. What you get is parking in the fee, BBQs allowed on your outdoor space and a security system, with the shops and restaurants of Queen East doing the job a party room would do elsewhere.

Jatin’s honest take on Riverside Lofts

Riverside Lofts — frequently asked questions

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