TEN93 Queen West, 1093 Queen St W: Colour, Small Suites, Heat in the Fee

TEN93 is the building on Queen West you can pick out from a streetcar window: a nine-storey block of orange, brown and grey panels at the corner of Dovercourt. Behind the colour is a fairly practical condo of small suites, a short list of amenities and a fee that covers heat. Buy it for the address and the layout, not for the lobby. I’m Jatin Dua, RE/MAX Quantum Realty.

A facade that does the talking

Most condos on this stretch of Queen are glass or brick. TEN93 went another way. RAW Design clad it mostly in metal and ceramic panels, and the cladding supplier, Elemex, says the job used its sintered-ceramic and aluminium-plate systems in a mix of colours, including a special-order orange. The result reads as a patchwork of blocks rather than a single slab.

It replaced an older warehouse-style building, and people following the project on SkyriseToronto read the design as a nod to that industrial past. Whether you love it or not, it is distinctive, and distinctive buildings tend to hold attention on MLS in a way that the fifth grey mid-rise on a street does not.

Two practical points come with panel cladding. First, colour and finish on the exterior are part of the common elements, so their upkeep sits in the reserve fund study. Second, joints and sealants between panels need periodic attention. Neither is a red flag; both are things I want to see addressed in the reserve fund plan.

Compact suites, nine-foot ceilings and a few two-storey units

When TEN93 launched in 2013, blogTO reported suites from about 460 to 1,160 square feet across studios, one-bed-plus-dens, two-bed-plus-dens and live/work units, with nine-foot ceilings. Condos.ca now records a range of roughly 470 to 1,015 square feet. The two sources do not match exactly, which is normal when marketing plans change before construction, so measure the floor plan of the suite you are actually buying.

The building skews small. Every unit on the market as I write is a studio or one-bedroom between 500 and 699 square feet. If you need a real second bedroom, you will be waiting for the occasional larger suite, and you should expect competition when one appears.

The suites to look for are the seven two-storey units on the eighth floor, which were marketed with internal stairs, and the live/work plans aimed at artists and small studios. Two-storey plans feel bigger than their square footage, and they are rare in a building this size. Check whether a live/work suite is actually zoned and declared for commercial use before you plan a business around it.

Parking is scarce here, by design

Parking was limited from the start. The 2013 marketing said spaces would only be offered with suites over 600 square feet, and in 2015 the developer went to the Committee of Adjustment to reduce the required number of spaces, according to the project thread on SkyriseToronto. The building was planned for people who live on Queen without a car.

That matters for resale in two directions. A one-bedroom with a deeded space is uncommon here and worth more to the right buyer. A unit without one is the norm, so you are not giving anything up relative to your neighbours. Visitor parking is listed, but do not count on it for a second car.

If you are buying a unit that comes with a space or a locker, confirm in the status certificate whether it is a separate titled unit or exclusive-use common element, and get the legal description right on the offer.

Living at Queen and Dovercourt

The building sits on the West Queen West strip between Ossington and the Drake and Gladstone hotels, with retail at grade. This is the part of Queen with galleries, independent shops, bars and late nights. It is lively, and that is the point. If you want a quiet street, look one block north or south instead.

Suite orientation matters more than usual here. Units facing Queen get the street life and the streetcar; units facing away from it are calmer. On a visit, stand in the suite with the windows closed in the evening before you decide which side suits you.

Transit, schools, Walk Score and nearby food and parks are in the data panel on this page. The short version is that daily errands, coffee and dinner are on foot, and Trinity Bellwoods Park is a walk east along Queen.

What TEN93 costs to buy and to carry

Condos.ca puts the building average at about $966 per square foot. That is a premium number because the suites are small; compact units always carry a higher per-foot figure than family-sized ones, so compare TEN93 to other small-suite buildings on Queen West, not to a building of large two-bedrooms.

The five suites listed for sale at the time of writing, a studio and four one-bedrooms between 500 and 699 square feet, ask between $517,000 and $590,000. Their monthly fees run from about $432 to $518, which works out to roughly $0.80 per square foot.

Heat is in the fee, along with water, building insurance and common elements. Hydro is not on the inclusion list, so assume it is metered separately and ask for recent bills. For a 2018 building with heat included, $0.80 a square foot is a reasonable number, but the question is whether it is high enough to fund the reserve, which is something only the reserve fund study answers.

Building specifications

Amenities at TEN93 Queen West

This is a small amenity package by design: a gym, a party room with a catering kitchen and a terrace with barbecues, with concierge marketed for business hours rather than overnight. It keeps the fee in check, and with Queen West outside the door most owners use the neighbourhood as their amenity.

Jatin’s honest take on TEN93 Queen West

TEN93 Queen West — frequently asked questions

Looking at Queen West, Trinity-Bellwoods, Kensington and Little Italy more broadly? Start with my Toronto community guide — the neighbourhoods, what each pocket is like, and how they compare.