The 500 Condos & Lofts, 500 Sherbourne St: 22-Foot Lofts Below a Tower

The 500 is really two buildings in one address. Up top is a 34-storey tower of ordinary one- and two-bedroom suites; down in the podium are two-storey lofts with ceilings of about 22 feet, which are the reason this building gets its own conversation. Both sit on Sherbourne at Wellesley, at a price per foot that undercuts most of downtown. I’m Jatin Dua, RE/MAX Quantum Realty.

The podium lofts are the story

The lower floors hold two-level loft suites with double-height living rooms. Press coverage of resales has described ceilings of about 22 feet, a bedroom on an open mezzanine behind a glass rail, and floor plans of roughly 1,050 to 1,200 sq ft with one bedroom and one and a half baths.

That format is rare in a 2010 concrete tower. Most buyers who want this kind of volume end up in a hard-loft conversion with no amenities and older systems; here you get the volume with a gym, a rooftop and a newer building envelope.

The trade-offs are real. A mezzanine bedroom is open to the living space, so sound and light carry, and tall glass walls are expensive to heat, cool and cover. Sit in one at the time of day you would actually be home before deciding.

Podium suites also sit closer to the street and to neighbouring buildings than the tower suites do. Check what the windows face, how much direct sun the double-height glass gets in summer, and whether the window coverings and air conditioning in the suite are up to the job.

The tower above

Above the podium, the tower is a conventional 2010 condo, designed by Paul Northgrave, with rows of balconies along its south side. Exposure matters here as in any tower: south-facing suites get the most light, and upper floors get the views, so the same plan can be worth noticeably different amounts depending on where it sits. The listings I see most often are one-plus-dens of about 600 to 800 sq ft and two-bedrooms of about 800 to 1,000 sq ft.

The upper end is very different. The building’s size range runs to about 2,583 sq ft, and the largest three-bedroom suites near the top carry prices and fees in a different league from the rest of the building. If you are looking at those, compare them against other downtown penthouses, not against the suites below.

With 363 suites, this is a large corporation. Large is useful: costs are spread over many owners, and there are enough sales each year to price a suite with confidence. It also means elevators, amenities and the lobby are shared with a lot of people, many of them tenants.

Heat and parking in the fee

Fees include common elements, heat, air conditioning, water, building insurance and parking. Hydro is the main utility you pay yourself. Across the current listings, fees average about $0.93 per square foot, which looks high next to newer towers until you add back their heating and parking costs.

On the current one-plus-den listings, fees run roughly $530 to $740 a month; on the two-bedrooms, roughly $770 to $900. The two large three-bedroom suites listed carry fees above $2,000 a month, which tells you how much space they are.

Parking is listed in the inclusions, but not every suite comes with a space. Confirm the parking and locker details on the status certificate for the suite you are buying.

Sherbourne and Wellesley, honestly

The building sits on Sherbourne just north of Wellesley, at the edge of St. James Town, with Cabbagetown a short walk east and the Church-Wellesley Village to the west. Some suites look over the parkland nearby, and the Loblaws at Maple Leaf Gardens is a practical walk for groceries.

The panel lists the transit options and distances. This is a dense, mixed area of rental towers, social housing and older houses. It is not polished, and the price per foot reflects that. Walk it at night and on a weekend before you buy.

The flip side is that daily life is convenient. Wellesley Street has cafés and small shops heading west to the Village, Riverdale Farm and the Cabbagetown streets are a pleasant walk east, and the downtown core is a short transit ride. Many owners here are people who work downtown and want more space for less money.

Downtown space at a discount

The building average is about $818 per square foot. That is meaningfully below Yonge Street towers a few blocks west and below most newer buildings around Church and Wellesley, which is the main reason buyers look east of Jarvis.

Current asking prices give a sense of the spread. The one-plus-dens listed now ask roughly $569,000 to $699,000, and the two-bedrooms roughly $659,000 to $835,000. The two large three-bedroom suites ask between about $2.5 million and $3.1 million, which is effectively a separate market.

For the podium lofts, price per foot can mislead in both directions. A double-height room adds volume but not floor area, so a loft can look expensive per foot and still be the better space for the money. I compare them with hard lofts in the east downtown, which is where their buyers also look.

There are six suites for sale and six for lease right now, so a buyer has choice and comparables. The podium lofts come up less often, and because there are few of them, I price each against the others rather than against the tower suites. For recent sold and leased figures, see the data panel or my building sold report.

Building specifications

Amenities at The 500 Condos & Lofts

The rooftop terrace, the gym with its yoga studio and the sauna cover what most owners use day to day, and guest suites are a real convenience in a building full of one-bedrooms. It is a complete package for 2010 without being lavish.

Jatin’s honest take on The 500 Condos & Lofts

The 500 Condos & Lofts — frequently asked questions

Looking at Church–Wellesley, Corktown, Moss Park and Cabbagetown more broadly? Start with my Toronto community guide — the neighbourhoods, what each pocket is like, and how they compare.