Saturday in Downsview Park, 50 George Butchart Dr: Mattamy Inside the Park

Most condo buildings put a park in the brochure. Saturday in Downsview Park is actually inside one: a pair of Mattamy mid-rises on the former military lands, where your front yard is more than 200 hectares of open space. It is new, it is reasonably priced for new, and it comes with a few questions I want every buyer to ask. I’m Jatin Dua, RE/MAX Quantum Realty.

A condo built on the old Downsview air base

The land under this building has an unusual history. Downsview Park covers about 231.5 hectares that were home to de Havilland Aircraft of Canada from 1929 to 1947 and then to the air force base CFB Downsview until it closed in 1996. The federal government set the land aside as an urban park, with part of it reserved for development to help pay for the park itself.

That is where Saturday comes from. In 2013 Mattamy Homes partnered with Urbancorp to start the first residential community in the park, and Saturday is one of the later phases of that plan. The result is a building that sits on park land rather than beside a highway or a strip mall, which is rare for a new condo at this price point.

It also means you are buying into a neighbourhood that is still being finished. Expect construction nearby for years as the remaining park-edge sites are built out. For some buyers that is a reason to wait; for others it is the reason prices here are still reasonable.

Two mid-rises, and the numbers do not quite agree

UrbanToronto records two buildings, a maximum height of 11 storeys and 441 homes in total, split 388 and 53. Condos.ca lists 10 storeys and 421 suites under a single corporation. The difference may come down to how townhouse-style units or a second phase were counted, but I have not been able to confirm which figure is right. The declaration and the status certificate will tell you exactly what TSCC-2922 includes.

The design team is a familiar one for suburban Toronto mid-rises: Graziani + Corazza Architects for the building and interiors, with GCB interior architecture also credited, and NAK Design Strategies for the landscape. That is a practical, cost-aware team rather than a showpiece one, and the building reads that way. You are paying for location and newness, not for architecture.

A mid-rise of this size has a quieter feel than a 40-storey tower. Elevator waits are shorter, there are fewer neighbours per floor, and move-in days are less chaotic. The trade-off is a smaller fee base for shared costs, which is one reason the reserve fund study matters even in a new building.

Suites: compact, practical and mostly two-bedroom

The current listings tell you what the building is made of. Most are two-bedroom suites in the 700 to 799 square foot band, with a studio under 500 square feet, a one-bedroom, a one-bedroom-plus-den and one three-bedroom-plus-den at the top of the range. This is a building of compact, efficient plans aimed at first-time buyers and small families, not large downsizer suites.

In a newer Mattamy building, the things to look at closely are the details that separate one suite from another: bedroom windows versus inboard bedrooms, the size and exposure of the balcony, and whether the den is a usable room or a nook. Ask for the floor plan of the actual suite, not the marketing plan, and walk the layout with your furniture in mind.

Ask about parking and lockers too. In buildings of this era they are usually sold separately or carried as separate units, and a suite without parking in a car-oriented part of the city is worth less, both to you and to the next buyer.

Daily life in the park

The daily appeal is simple. You walk out into open lawns, trails and event space rather than traffic. Downsview Park station opened in December 2017 as part of the Line 1 extension to Vaughan and also connects to GO Transit’s Barrie line, and a TTC route links the park’s south-end neighbourhood to the station. The panel on this page shows the actual walking times, so use those rather than the marketing.

What the area does not yet have is a finished main street. Groceries, cafés and services are mostly a drive or a bus ride away, around Keele, Wilson and Sheppard, and Yorkdale is nearby by car. If you want to walk to a dozen restaurants, this is not that building. If you want green space and a quiet street, it is hard to beat in the city.

Pricing: new-build value, newer-building fees

The building average reported on condos.ca is about $806 per square foot. That is well below the downtown core and below most new condos near a subway in North York, which is the main argument for buying here. You get a 2022 building for roughly what an older tower costs in many other parts of the city.

Eight active listings were asking from about $300,000 to $699,000 when I prepared this review, with monthly fees from about $317 to $907. Across those listings the fee averages about $0.84 per square foot. That is higher than I would expect for a building this new, so ask what it includes. Condos.ca does not list fee inclusions for this building, and in buildings of this age heat, hydro and water are often metered separately.

Before you compare it with an older building, add back any utilities you would pay separately here. Then compare against the recent sold data in the panel on this page, not against asking prices, which in a building with several listings at once can sit above where suites actually trade.

Building specifications

Amenities at Saturday in Downsview Park

The amenity list on record for this building is short and reads oddly for a new Mattamy condo, so do not rely on it. Ask for the current amenity list and booking rules, and see the rooms yourself; for many owners here the real amenity is the park outside the door.

Jatin’s honest take on Saturday in Downsview Park

Saturday in Downsview Park — frequently asked questions

Looking at Downsview, Weston, York University Heights, Rexdale and northwest Toronto more broadly? Start with my Toronto community guide — the neighbourhoods, what each pocket is like, and how they compare.