The Residences at Hazelton Lanes: Living Above Yorkville Village

The Residences at Hazelton Lanes is one of the few places in Toronto where you can take an elevator down to a Whole Foods without going outside. The suites sit on and around the Yorkville Village shopping complex, many of them two-storey homes with terraces, and the fee covers almost every utility. It is also an unusual legal and physical set-up, and you need to understand it before you buy. I’m Jatin Dua, RE/MAX Quantum Realty.

Living on top of a shopping centre

Hazelton Lanes opened in October 1976 as a mixed retail and residential complex designed by Boris Zerafa of Webb Zerafa Menkès Housden. First Capital Realty bought it in 2011, replaced its mechanical systems and renovated it, and it reopened in 2016 as Yorkville Village, with Whole Foods and Equinox as anchors. The residences are part of that complex but are a separate condominium corporation from the retail.

The suites are split between two addresses. A Toronto Life feature on the west building at 55A Avenue Road counted 29 suites there, 20 of them two storeys, and noted that residents can take elevators down to the retail level. The rest of the 53 suites are in the wing with the 18A Hazelton Avenue address.

Sources disagree on age. Listings and the building profile give 2001, which matches the corporation’s registration. The published history of the complex describes a terraced condominium on top of the centre at 55A Avenue Road dating from the 1976 opening. Before you buy, ask the status certificate and the seller which date applies to the suite you are looking at, because it changes how you read the reserve fund.

Two-storey suites and terraces

This is not a building of small suites. Recorded sizes run from about 729 square feet to roughly 4,376 square feet, and the larger homes are closer to a townhouse than a flat. Many suites in the west building are two storeys, and at least some have private terraces looking over Avenue Road.

Because the building is only six storeys, the views are of the street and the rooftops of Yorkville rather than the skyline. What you get instead is a low, quiet building with the scale of the old Yorkville streets around it, and a front door on Hazelton Avenue, one of the prettiest streets in the neighbourhood.

With so much variation in size and layout, comparables are hard. Two suites with the same bedroom count can differ by hundreds of square feet and one storey. Price each suite on its own size, terrace and condition, not on the building average.

Two-storey suites also bring the same question I ask about any townhouse-style home: how much do you mind stairs? Ask how each level is reached and whether the suite’s front door is on the lower or upper floor. For a downsizer, that detail can decide the purchase.

A fee that covers almost everything

The fee is one of the most inclusive I see: cable TV, air conditioning, common elements, heat, hydro, building insurance and water. In practice, you may have very few utility bills of your own. That is a real convenience, and it also explains why the monthly fees look high in absolute terms.

Across the three suites for sale at the time of writing, all two-bedrooms, monthly fees ranged from about $2,550 to $2,640. Parking is not listed among the inclusions, so confirm whether a space comes with the suite and whether it is owned or rented. The building has a garage and visitor parking.

The shared set-up with the retail complex is the thing to understand. In complexes like this, the residential and commercial corporations usually share some services, costs and parts of the structure under a shared facilities agreement. Ask for that agreement and read how costs are split, because it affects your fee as much as the building’s own budget does.

The Yorkville daily routine

Few addresses in the city are this close to everything Yorkville offers. You have Whole Foods and a gym in the same complex, the galleries and restaurants of Hazelton Avenue and Yorkville Avenue outside the door, and Bloor Street’s shops a short walk south. For many owners here, the car stays in the garage most of the week.

Yorkville is also one of the most active development areas in Toronto, with several tall towers built or proposed along Bloor, Yorkville Avenue and Avenue Road. A low building surrounded by growth gains neighbours, noise and, sometimes, shade. Check active applications nearby on the City of Toronto map. The data panel on this page covers transit, schools and nearby food and parks.

Yorkville pricing in a different format

The building averages about $1,059 per square foot. That is below many of the newer Yorkville towers, and you get large, often two-storey suites, private terraces and an inclusive fee in return. You give up a new-build lobby, a big amenity floor and skyline views.

At the time of writing, three two-bedroom suites were for sale, with asking prices from about $1.50 million to $1.70 million. Fees across those listings ran from about $2,550 to $2,640 a month, with hydro, heat, cable and air conditioning included.

When you compare that fee with a newer tower, add back the hydro, heating and cooling you would pay there yourself. Then look at the reserve fund and the shared facilities costs, which matter more here than in a standalone building. My building sold report shows what has actually closed.

Building specifications

Amenities at The Residences at Hazelton Lanes

The amenities that matter here are outside your suite but inside the complex: a Whole Foods and a fitness club an elevator ride away. The building itself offers staff at the door and security rather than a pool or party floor.

Jatin’s honest take on The Residences at Hazelton Lanes

The Residences at Hazelton Lanes — frequently asked questions

Looking at Yorkville, the Annex and Midtown more broadly? Start with my Toronto community guide — the neighbourhoods, what each pocket is like, and how they compare.