St George Mews, 284 Bloor St W: All-In Fees Beside a Boutique Hotel

St George Mews is one of the few ways to own a two-bedroom on Bloor at St George for well under a million dollars. It is a small 1991 building with 74 suites, joined to a hotel, entered from a gated lane, and its fee covers hydro and parking. The fee looks high until you understand what is in it. I’m Jatin Dua, RE/MAX Quantum Realty.

A condo joined to a hotel

St George Mews is attached to the hotel next door at 280 Bloor Street West. For years that hotel was the Holiday Inn Bloor Yorkville; it was taken over and reworked as the Kimpton Saint George, with 188 rooms, which opened in 2018.

Residents do not come in through the hotel. The condominium has its own entrance off a gated laneway, which keeps the front door quieter than you might expect on this stretch of Bloor.

Living beside a hotel has small practical effects. You have a restaurant and bar at your door and somewhere to put up visiting family, and you also share the block with hotel deliveries and taxis. Visit at a busy evening hour and check how it feels from the suite you are considering.

Suites sized for one or two people

Suites run from about 665 to 1,123 sq ft, so this is mainly a building of one-bedrooms and compact two-bedrooms rather than large family homes. Both suites for sale at the time of writing were two-bedrooms, one in the 700 to 799 sq ft band and one in the 900 to 999 sq ft band.

That size range suits single professionals, couples and buyers who want a pied-à-terre near the university and the museums. A two-bedroom under 800 sq ft will be tight; look closely at bedroom sizes and closet space, and measure for your furniture before you fall for the location.

With 74 suites over 11 floors, there are only a handful of suites per floor, so hallways are short and you share the elevator with relatively few neighbours.

Because the building is from 1991, layouts tend to be more traditional than today’s open-plan suites, with defined kitchens and real hallways. That can mean less wasted space in the living room and more usable walls for furniture, but it also means a dated kitchen if the suite has not been updated. Budget for that when you compare listings.

A fee that covers hydro and parking

The fee list is broad: common elements, heat, air conditioning, hydro, water, building insurance and parking. Few buildings include hydro and a parking space, and that is why the fee per foot looks high.

Across the two suites listed at the time of writing, fees worked out to about $1.29 per square foot, or roughly $1,000 to $1,190 a month. Before you compare that with a newer building, add back the other building’s hydro, heating and cooling bills and its monthly parking charge. Much of the difference disappears.

The trade-off with an all-in fee is that energy costs are shared. If one neighbour runs the air conditioning all summer, everyone pays. Ask for the last three budgets so you can see how fees have moved.

Bloor and St George, day to day

The address puts you just off the northwest corner of the University of Toronto’s St George campus, across from the Bata Shoe Museum, which opened in its Raymond Moriyama building in 1995. Yorkville is to the east, and the Annex shops and restaurants along Bloor are to the west.

For a car owner, having a parking space bundled into the fee is worth more here than in most neighbourhoods. On a busy stretch of Bloor, renting a space nearby would be a separate monthly cost that never goes away, so a space in the fee is real money saved every month. Confirm the space is assigned to the suite you are buying, not leased from someone else.

This is an established neighbourhood of houses and low and mid-rise buildings, which helps keep the street at a human scale. Transit, schools and nearby food are shown in the data panel on this page.

The other thing to know is that this part of Bloor attracts a steady stream of visitors: museum crowds, students and hotel guests. If you want a quiet residential side street, look a few blocks north in the Annex instead; if you like being in the middle of things, this is the right corner.

Pricing: an Annex entry point

St George Mews averages about $756 per square foot on condos.ca. That sits in the middle of older Annex and Bloor buildings: 55 Prince Arthur shows about $771 and The Dunhill Club about $938, while newer towers to the east, such as 102 Bloor West at about $976 and Exhibit Residences at about $1,101, are well above it.

At the time of writing, two two-bedroom suites were for sale, asking from about $650,000 to $785,000. For a two-bedroom with parking on Bloor at St George, that is an unusually accessible range, and it is the main reason buyers look here.

Because the fee includes hydro and parking, compare the all-in monthly cost, not just price per foot. For recent sales, ask me for the building sold report.

Building specifications

Amenities at St George Mews

The amenity list is modest: a gym, a rooftop deck, a party room and bike storage. It is a building for people who use the city as their amenity, with a rooftop to sit on in summer and parking downstairs.

Jatin’s honest take on St George Mews

St George Mews — 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.