South Hill on Madison, 377 Madison Ave: Burnac Mid-Rise Below Casa Loma

South Hill on Madison is the newer-build answer for buyers who want the Annex and Casa Loma without a tower. It is a seven-storey Burnac building designed by Northgrave Architects, with a curved, limestone-look exterior, rooftop terraces for the penthouses and a courtyard it shares with Madison Avenue Lofts next door. The fee is lean, and that cuts both ways. I’m Jatin Dua, RE/MAX Quantum Realty.

It finishes a block that started with a Hydro building

To understand South Hill, start next door. The block’s first condominium was Madison Avenue Lofts at 380 Macpherson Avenue, a restored former Toronto Hydro building. South Hill on Madison completed the block, and Burnac and Northgrave deliberately designed it to sit comfortably beside the lofts rather than compete with them.

The two buildings are separate corporations with separate amenities, but they share a formal landscaped courtyard at the south end of the site. That courtyard is one of the nicer things about living here: a protected green space that the ground-floor party room opens onto and the second-floor gym and theatre look over.

The other site-planning decision that shapes daily life is the lane. Rather than put the main entrance on Madison Avenue, which carries an elementary school and restaurant traffic, the architects cut a new east-west lane through the site between Madison and Huron. Residents arrive and drive in from that lane, which keeps pick-ups and deliveries off the busier street.

Art Deco curves and 55 floor plans

The exterior is finished to resemble Indiana limestone, with curved corners that nod to Art Deco apartment houses rather than the glass boxes going up elsewhere in midtown. At seven storeys, it reads as a large mansion block from the street, and it is one storey taller than Madison Avenue Lofts, which is what gives the top-floor terraces their views toward Casa Loma and the downtown skyline.

There were 55 distinct floor plans at launch, which is a lot for a building of this size. The largest suites face northwest toward the wooded Davenport hill, the old Lake Iroquois shoreline below Casa Loma. Burnac also let buyers combine smaller suites into larger custom units, so some suites here are one-offs that do not match any published plan.

Sizes run from about 383 sq ft to more than 2,300 sq ft. That range means the building holds both small investor suites and large owner-occupier homes, plus ten townhomes. Treat those as three different markets when you compare prices; a townhome or a terrace penthouse should never be priced off a one-bedroom-plus-den.

Penthouse buyers should look closely at the rooftop terraces. They sit on the seventh-floor roof and are reached from the suites below, so the terrace is effectively a second outdoor floor. Ask who is responsible for the decking, planters and membrane underneath, because on a private roof terrace that answer is not always the corporation.

A lean fee: what is not included

The maintenance fee here covers common elements and building insurance, and that is about it. Heat, cooling, hydro and water are not listed as included, so expect them on your own bills, and parking and lockers may carry their own charges depending on how they were sold. That is normal for a building of this age, but it makes the fee look lower than it really is next to older Annex buildings.

Madison Avenue Lofts next door, for example, lists heat and water in its fee. If you are choosing between the two, add a year of hydro and heating bills to South Hill’s fee before you compare. Ask the seller for actual utility statements, not estimates, and ask the status certificate whether parking and locker fees are billed separately.

Living between Dupont and Davenport

This pocket sits between the northern edge of the Annex and the southern slope of South Hill and Forest Hill. When this building was proposed, UrbanToronto expected it to help revive Dupont Street, and the street has continued to attract mid-rise proposals on its low commercial sites. Expect construction nearby over the next few years, and check the City of Toronto development applications map for anything proposed on your side of the building.

Day to day, you are within walking distance of the shops and restaurants on Dupont, Davenport and Bloor, and Casa Loma and its stairs are just up the hill. Transit, schools, parks and Walk Score are shown in the data panel on this page.

Where South Hill sits on price

Condos.ca reports a building average of about $954 per square foot. That puts it above Madison Avenue Lofts next door at about $834, which is roughly what I would expect for a newer building with more modern systems and a full amenity floor, and below the boutique Yorkville and Forest Hill product at $1,200 and up.

The lean fee is part of that comparison. On a per-square-foot basis the fee is moderate, but because utilities are separate, your all-in monthly cost will be closer to the older loft buildings than the fee alone suggests.

When I checked, there was one suite for sale and three for rent, so I cannot quote a fair asking range. With 160-plus suites, though, there is enough sales history to price most suite types properly. Ask me for the building sold report for the recorded sales, and make sure townhomes and terrace suites are compared only with each other.

Building specifications

Amenities at South Hill on Madison

The amenities are stacked around the courtyard: party room on the ground floor, gym, yoga studio and theatre on the second. It is a compact package that suits a seven-storey building, and the courtyard does more for daily life than any single room.

Jatin’s honest take on South Hill on Madison

South Hill on Madison — 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.