Garrison at Fort York, 169 Fort York Blvd: A 12-Storey Onni Mid-Rise

The Garrison is a rarity in the Fort York area: a 12-storey building in a neighbourhood of 30- and 40-storey towers. It feels more like a large apartment house than a high-rise, and it looks straight over the historic fort. It also sits right against the Gardiner, and you need to be honest with yourself about what that means. I’m Jatin Dua, RE/MAX Quantum Realty.

A mid-rise built in horizontal blocks

Onni Group built The Garrison as the first piece of a planned four-building community it called The Yards, around 1,000 homes in total on the lands north of the Gardiner. The Garrison was the smallest of them, marketed as a boutique-hotel scale building, and excavation began in 2011.

Wallman Architects designed it as a stack of horizontal blocks rather than a single tower. The base is glass in metal frames, levels three to seven carry continuous balconies broken up by masonry panels set in an irregular pattern, and the top floors form a glass box that appears to float over the rest. The south wall is metal-clad, and the architects describe it as looking as though it was sheared off by the expressway.

Sources disagree on the number of suites. Condos.ca lists 236, UrbanToronto describes 248, and the architect’s own page says 250. The registered declaration is the authoritative count, but the practical point is the same: this is a building of a couple of hundred suites, not a thousand.

Onni is a Vancouver-based builder that does its own construction and has stayed active in Toronto since. That tends to mean a consistent approach to finishes across its buildings, though at this age what matters more is how the corporation has looked after the building since handover.

The Gardiner is part of the deal

The building sits directly beside the Gardiner Expressway, and there is a hard-surfaced public space under the expressway that connects toward the waterfront. Suites facing south look at, and hear, the elevated highway. The metal-clad south wall reflects that the architects knew this side would be the hard one.

North-facing suites are the other story. They look across Fort York National Historic Site and its open green, which is about as permanent a view protection as you will find downtown. If you are buying here, the direction your suite faces matters more than in almost any other building I cover.

The ground floor was also set higher than usual, in anticipation of Bathurst and Fort York becoming a streetcar crossing once the Bathurst bridge was rebuilt. That is a small detail, but it tells you the building was designed around the transit and road changes on this corner.

Compact suites under 1,000 square feet

Condos.ca puts the suite range at about 565 to 975 sq ft, which means nothing here is large. The building is mainly one-bedrooms, one-plus-dens and compact two-bedrooms, plus studios, which suits first-time buyers and investors more than families.

Listings at the time I checked were reported in the under-500 sq ft band, below the range condos.ca quotes for the building. That usually means the listing size is interior only or the building range includes balconies. Always work from the floor plan and measured area.

In a mid-rise, the continuous balconies on the middle floors are a genuine plus. Ask how deep the balcony is and whether it is shared along the facade with a neighbour’s divider, since that affects privacy.

Studios here are among the cheapest ways to own in this part of downtown, and they rent readily. But a studio is the hardest suite type to resell when the market softens, so buy one only if the numbers work for you over a longer hold.

Bathurst and Fort York, then and now

When The Garrison was sold, the marketing leaned on what was coming: a new library, the Fort York visitor centre, the Fort York Boulevard extension and new retail. Most of that has since arrived, and the corner now has a full neighbourhood of towers around it, including Onni’s later Yards buildings and the West Harbour City and Library District condos along Fort York Boulevard.

The building has around 16,000 sq ft of retail at grade, so everyday shopping is close. King West, Liberty Village and the waterfront are all within walking distance, and the transit details are in the data panel on this page.

What The Garrison costs, and how the fee compares

Condos.ca puts the building average at about $823 per square foot. That sits below the newer towers around it, which is what I would expect for a 2013 mid-rise with a highway on one side and compact layouts.

When I checked, three suites were for sale, a studio and two one-bedrooms, asking between about $369,000 and $470,000, with monthly fees between roughly $260 and $400. Five more were listed for lease. For actual traded prices, use the building sold report.

The fee includes heat, air conditioning and water as well as common elements and insurance. Parking is not listed as included, so confirm whether a space comes with the suite and what it costs separately.

The spread between the best and worst suites here is wider than the building average suggests. A higher north-facing suite over the fort and a lower south-facing suite against the expressway are very different products, and buyers and sellers who treat them as interchangeable usually get the price wrong. Ask for comparables on the same side of the building.

Building specifications

Amenities at The Garrison Condos at Fort York

The amenity list is modest: a concierge, a gym, a games room, a media room and outdoor space on the roof and patio. There is no pool, which keeps operating costs down and suits owners who would rather pay lower fees than fund a pool they will not use.

Jatin’s honest take on The Garrison Condos at Fort York

The Garrison Condos at Fort York — frequently asked questions

Looking at King West, Liberty Village and CityPlace more broadly? Start with my Toronto community guide — the neighbourhoods, what each pocket is like, and how they compare.