The Curve, 170 Sudbury St: Westside Gallery’s Smaller Mid-Rise Sibling

The Curve is the quiet one in a block of louder buildings. It is an eight-storey mid-rise on Sudbury Street, built by the same developer and on the same stretch as the much larger Westside Gallery Lofts, a short walk south of Queen West. Every suite is compact, so this is a building you buy for the location and the scale, not for space. I’m Jatin Dua, RE/MAX Quantum Realty.

The smaller half of the Sudbury Street plan

The Curve grew out of the same planning process that produced Westside Gallery Lofts. When Spacing mapped the Queen West Triangle in 2007, the Urbancorp site at 150 Sudbury was described as two buildings: a seven-storey block to the west and a taller block of up to 18 storeys to the east. The tall building became Westside Gallery Lofts, completed in 2012. The Curve, registered two years later at eight storeys, is the lower building on the same strip.

I want to be careful here, because the public record on this building is thin. Condos.ca lists the developer as Urban Group and calls The Curve the sister property to Urbancorp’s larger project, while other sources treat it as an Urbancorp building. I have not found a published architect credit. If either matters to you, the declaration and disclosure documents in the status certificate will name them.

What is clear is the scale. With 134 suites on eight floors, it is far smaller than the 20-storey tower beside it and the high-rises along Abell Street, and that is the main reason to choose it over its neighbours.

Compact suites, and nothing larger

Suites here run from about 400 sq ft to roughly 869 sq ft. That means studios, one-bedrooms, one-bedroom-plus-dens and compact two-bedrooms, with no large family plans. Both suites listed for sale when I checked were one-bedroom-plus-dens in the 500s.

In a building like this, the layout decides everything. Two 550 sq ft suites can feel completely different depending on how deep the plan is from the window wall, whether the den is a real room or an alcove, and where the closet is. Measure the den and ask whether it has a door or a window before you count it as a second bedroom.

Storage is the other question. With suites this size, a locker matters more than usual. If a listing does not mention parking or a locker, ask early, because it changes both how you live and what the suite is worth at resale.

Fees that include heat

The fee at The Curve covers heat, water, common elements and building insurance. In a block where several newer buildings leave heat on the owner’s own meter, that is a meaningful inclusion and makes winter costs more predictable.

Across current listings, fees work out to about $0.98 per square foot. That is on the higher side for a mid-rise, which is a common pattern in smaller buildings with a concierge: there are fewer owners to share the fixed costs of staff, elevators and insurance.

Compare it fairly. Against a building at $0.80 per square foot that leaves heat to you, the gap narrows once you add a heating bill. Against a building at $0.80 that also includes heat, The Curve is simply more expensive per foot, and you should know why before you buy.

Living on Sudbury Street

Sudbury Street runs just south of Queen, behind the Gladstone and the Bohemian Embassy. You are a few minutes from the bars, galleries and restaurants of West Queen West, with Trinity Bellwoods Park and Liberty Village each within walking distance. The block itself is newer and calmer than Queen, with a park at the centre of the Triangle a short walk away.

The Triangle around you is now essentially built out. When Spacing mapped it in 2007, this was a pocket of low industrial buildings and empty lots between Queen and the tracks. Today it is a dense cluster of mid-2000s and 2010s condos, including Bohemian Embassy, Westside Gallery Lofts and Epic on Triangle Park, with new streets and a park tying them together. That means less construction disruption on your own block than in many parts of downtown.

The rail corridor runs along the south edge of this neighbourhood. If you are looking at a south-facing suite, visit at different times of day and listen. The automatic panel covers transit and walkability.

What The Curve costs per square foot

Condos.ca puts the building average at about $787 per square foot. That is one of the lower figures in this pocket of West Queen West, below newer towers nearby and below Bohemian Embassy on Queen.

Two suites were listed for sale when I checked, both one-bedroom-plus-dens in the 500 to 599 sq ft range asking from about $449,000 to about $510,000. Fees across those two listings ran from roughly $520 to $562 a month.

That is a relatively affordable way into the Queen West area, especially for a first-time buyer. The trade-off is a small building with few resales, so comparables can be thin. Before you offer, look at recent trades in the building and in Westside Gallery Lofts next door; my building sold report is a good place to start.

Building specifications

Amenities at The Curve

The package is modest and practical: a concierge, a party room, a media room, a meeting room and guest suites. A meeting room is genuinely useful if you work from home in a compact suite and need somewhere to take a call.

Jatin’s honest take on The Curve

The Curve — 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.