St George on Sheldrake, 65 Sheldrake Blvd: A Church Turned Loft Homes

St George on Sheldrake is one of the very few places in Toronto where you can live inside a former church and still walk to Yonge and Eglinton. It is a three-storey building of about 34 big, individual loft homes, and it is closer to buying a house than buying a condo. That is the appeal, and it is also why you have to approach it differently. I’m Jatin Dua, RE/MAX Quantum Realty.

From church to school to lofts

The building began as Eglinton United Church. A recent listing notes that it later became home to The York School before being converted into loft suites, with the conversion work dated to 2003 and the condominium registered in 2005.

That history is the whole character of the place. The brick shell stays, and the interiors were carved into individual homes rather than identical units on a corridor. BlogTO’s profile of a suite here described three-storey layouts with cathedral ceilings, skylights, hardwood and limestone floors, a gas fireplace and a balcony with a gas barbecue hookup.

Sources disagree on the exact count. BlogTO said 33 homes, condos.ca lists 34 and a recent listing says 35 suites. The difference may come from how combined or split units were counted over time. It does not change much for a buyer, but it is the kind of detail to settle in the status certificate.

Every suite is different, so view them as houses

The size range is extraordinary for a condo: from about 968 square feet up to roughly 4,349. At the top end you are looking at something larger than many detached houses in the surrounding streets. At the bottom you are still getting more space than most midtown two-bedrooms.

Because a church does not divide evenly, no two layouts are quite the same. One suite might be spread over several levels with stairs between every room, another might sit on one floor with a double-height ceiling; one recently listed suite quoted ceilings of about 11 and a half feet. Stairs are part of the charm and a real issue for anyone thinking about ageing in place, so walk the whole suite with that in mind.

Original church windows and skylights bring the light, but they also mean unusual window sizes, odd shapes for blinds and some rooms that get more sun than others. Judge each suite on its own; a comparison with the suite next door will tell you less here than in any ordinary building.

A fee that behaves like a house budget

The fee here covers common elements, heat, air conditioning, water, building insurance and parking. For a buyer coming from a detached house, that matters: heating and cooling a large space with tall ceilings is expensive, and in this building those costs are pooled.

Each suite has underground parking, with one space per unit according to BlogTO and a recent listing, and storage lockers are available. Condos.ca also lists a car wash bay, concierge service, a gym and barbecues as permitted, and it notes that pets are allowed. Confirm the details of any pet or barbecue rules in the declaration and rules.

The trade-off of pooled costs in a building this small is that every big repair is shared among about 34 owners. A new roof on a former church, masonry work or a garage repair can be large numbers when divided that few ways, which is why the reserve fund study is the most important document you will read here.

Living on Sheldrake Boulevard

Sheldrake is a residential street set back from Yonge, in the pocket north of Eglinton that sits between the Lawrence Park and Lytton Park areas and Mount Pleasant. You get the quiet of a side street and you can still walk to the shops and restaurants of Yonge Street and to the subway; the data panel on this page shows the transit and school detail.

It is a very different daily experience from the tower clusters at Yonge and Eglinton just to the south. You will not have a 24-hour retail podium under you, and you will not have a lobby full of couriers. You will have neighbours you recognise and a street with mature trees.

The redevelopment pressure in midtown works in your favour here. Most new supply nearby is small suites in tall towers, and almost nothing being built offers 2,000 or 3,000 square feet with this kind of history. That scarcity is what holds value in a building like this.

Pricing: house-sized suites at condo pricing per foot

Condos.ca puts the average at about $1,062 per square foot, which is the highest of the loft buildings I track in this part of midtown. SoHo Lofts on Eglinton averages about $817 and the Eglinton Hunt Club lofts on Avenue Road about $743. You are paying for the history, the size and a quiet residential street.

Because suites are so large, total prices run well above most midtown condos, and they are closer to a semi-detached house in the area. A per-foot average also hides a lot: in a building of about 34 one-of-a-kind homes, a single large sale can move the average more than any market trend.

There were no suites for sale or rent when I checked, which is normal here. Listings are rare and often trade quietly. If you want in, register for alerts, and use the sold and leased medians in the data panel or my building sold report to understand the pattern, rather than guessing from one listing.

Building specifications

Amenities at St George on Sheldrake

This is not an amenity building. You get a gym, concierge, a car wash and underground parking, and the real amenity is the size and character of your own home.

Jatin’s honest take on St George on Sheldrake

St George on Sheldrake — frequently asked questions

Looking at Yonge & Eglinton, Davisville and North Toronto more broadly? Start with my Toronto community guide — the neighbourhoods, what each pocket is like, and how they compare.