The Hemingway, 205 The Donway W: Across From Shops at Don Mills

The Hemingway sells itself on one thing before anyone mentions the suites: you can walk across the street to the Shops at Don Mills. Behind that is a 2005 mid-rise with a concierge, a pool and sauna, a rooftop terrace, and a fee that covers heat and cooling. I’m Jatin Dua, RE/MAX Quantum Realty.

The location is the reason people buy here

205 The Donway West sits across the street from the Shops at Don Mills, the outdoor shopping centre at Don Mills and Lawrence. Listing descriptions over the years have leaned on that hard, and for good reason: groceries, restaurants, a cinema, a library and the LCBO are close enough that many owners do most errands on foot.

For drivers, the Don Valley Parkway and Highway 401 are a few minutes away. The bus routes, schools and Walk Score are shown in the data panel on this page, so I will leave the detail there.

The Donway West is lined with mid-rise condos of different ages, including The Tapestry at 215 and 225 The Donway W, Village Mews at 245 and 255, and the newer Reflections, Flaire and Liv Lofts buildings closer to the shopping centre. That gives buyers real choice within a few hundred metres, and it gives you good comparables.

A mid-rise with tower-style amenities

At 225 suites, The Hemingway is large for an eight-storey building, and that scale pays for amenities a smaller mid-rise could not carry. Condos.ca lists a concierge, a rooftop deck, a party room, a meeting room, a sauna and visitor parking.

Older listing descriptions add more: an indoor pool with a whirlpool, change rooms with showers, a gym, and a large rooftop terrace with barbecues, seating and a putting green. Condos.ca’s short list does not show the pool, so confirm what is open and operating today when you view a suite.

A pool and a staffed front desk are expensive to run, and they are part of why the fee here is higher per foot than at some neighbours. Whether that is worth it depends on whether you will use them.

There is also a governance angle. With 225 owners sharing the cost, each owner’s slice of a pool repair or a lobby refresh is smaller than it would be in a 60-suite building, which is one reason amenities tend to survive longer in buildings of this size. Still, ask whether any amenity has been closed or scaled back in recent years and why.

Heat and cooling in the fee

Condos.ca lists air conditioning, heat, common elements, building insurance, parking and water in the fee. For a building of this era, having both heating and cooling covered is a meaningful plus, because it leaves hydro as the main bill you pay yourself.

When you compare monthly fees with newer buildings on The Donway, remember that many of those meter heat and cooling to each suite and charge parking separately. Add those back before deciding which building is cheaper to own.

The other side of bundled heat and cooling is a central mechanical system that the corporation must maintain and eventually replace. At 21 years old, that plant, along with the roof, windows and garage, is heading into the period where the reserve fund study matters most.

Layouts and who lives here

Condos.ca puts suites at about 535 to 1,716 square feet. Listings commonly show one-bedroom-plus-den plans with en-suite laundry and a balcony, and the larger suites and penthouses suit buyers coming out of houses in Don Mills and the surrounding neighbourhoods.

Lower-floor suites face the street and the shopping centre more directly, while upper floors and the rooftop terrace get the wider views. Ask about exposure and noise for the specific suite, since the shopping centre and The Donway both carry traffic.

Condos.ca lists a pet restriction, so read the rules in the declaration before you commit if you have a dog or more than one pet. Do not rely on a listing summary for that.

If you work from home, look closely at the den. In some one-plus-den plans it is a proper room with space for a desk and a door you could add later; in others it is an open nook beside the kitchen. That difference is worth real money at resale, and it is easy to miss in listing photos.

Pricing The Hemingway against The Donway

Condos.ca puts The Hemingway’s average at about $717 per square foot. That is at the upper end for a 2005 mid-rise in North York, and it reflects the location across from the Shops at Don Mills as much as the building itself.

Next door, The Tapestry, a 1991 Bramalea building, shows about $748 per square foot, while Village Mews, from 1985, sits nearer $463. The spread between neighbours tells you how much fee inclusions, suite size and condition matter on this street, so compare suite to suite rather than building to building.

There was one listing for sale and one for rent when I checked in October 2026, so I will not quote individual figures. The sales recorded in the panel above are the better guide to what suites here actually trade for.

When you compare carrying costs, put the fee, the property tax and your own hydro side by side for each building. A higher fee that already covers heat, cooling and parking can work out close to a lower fee that does not.

Building specifications

Amenities at The Hemingway Condo

For a mid-rise, this is a full package: someone at the front desk, a pool and sauna for winter, and a rooftop terrace with barbecues for summer. Combined with the shopping centre across the road, it is a building where you can go days without needing the car.

Jatin’s honest take on The Hemingway Condo

The Hemingway Condo — frequently asked questions

Looking at York Mills, Don Mills, Lawrence Park, Bathurst Manor and midtown-north Toronto more broadly? Start with my Toronto community guide — the neighbourhoods, what each pocket is like, and how they compare.