Tip Top Lofts, 637 Lake Shore Blvd W: Art Deco Factory on the Water

Tip Top Lofts is one of the few Toronto buildings where the word loft is earned. It is the 1929 Tip Top Tailors factory on Lake Shore Boulevard, a designated heritage building with the red neon sign still on the roof, and it sits a short walk from the water. It also costs more per square foot than most of its neighbours, and you should understand why before you pay it. I’m Jatin Dua, RE/MAX Quantum Realty.

A real factory, with a glass building on its roof

Tip Top Tailors built this as its garment factory, warehouse and head office in 1929, to a design by Bishop and Miller. It is widely regarded as one of Toronto’s best examples of industrial Art Deco, and the City designated it a heritage property in 1972. When you buy here you are buying into a building with a protected facade, which is part of what holds its value.

Context Development bought the building from Dylex in 2002 and hired architectsAlliance to convert it. Their solution was to keep the masonry factory intact and set new glass-and-steel floors on top of it, set back so the old building still reads clearly from the street. The famous neon Tip Top Tailors sign was kept and remounted on a slant above the roofline.

Sources do not agree on the height. Condos.ca lists 8 floors, while heritage and conversion write-ups describe a five-storey original with six glass storeys added. Look at the floor numbering in the listing you are considering and ask the property manager if it matters to your decision.

Two kinds of suite in one building

The practical thing to understand is that there are really two products here. Suites in the original factory floors have the industrial character people come for: big windows, generous ceiling heights, and the deep, open floor plates that a 1920s factory was built with. Suites in the glass addition feel more like a modern condo, with more light and better views, but less of the heritage feel.

Condos.ca records suite sizes from about 400 to 3,209 square feet, which is a far wider range than most downtown buildings. At the top end are bi-level penthouses in the addition. At the smaller end, a converted factory suite can be deep and narrow, with the bedroom set back from the window, so check where the natural light actually reaches before you commit.

Heritage conversions are also less uniform than new towers. Two suites with the same square footage can have very different column placements, window counts and ceiling treatments, so do not judge one unit by another’s photos.

When I tour suites here with buyers, I spend as much time on the windows and the ceiling as on the kitchen. Kitchens and bathrooms can be redone; the number of factory windows, their direction and the height above you cannot. That is where the long-term value of a heritage suite lives, and it is what the next buyer will pay for when you sell.

The fee: what $0.79 a square foot buys

Active listings put the fee at about $0.79 per square foot, which is reasonable for downtown and good for a building with this much character to maintain. The inclusion list is generous: common elements, heat, air conditioning, building insurance, parking and water. Bundled heating and cooling in a building with this much glass removes one of the bigger swing costs in a downtown budget.

As with any building that lists parking as included, the space has to come with the specific suite. Confirm on the status certificate that the unit you are looking at owns a parking space and a locker. Hydro, internet and cable are separate.

Living on Lake Shore at Bathurst

The location is the other half of the appeal. You are close to the Martin Goodman Trail and the waterfront, which is rare for a loft building; most of Toronto’s real lofts are inland in the old garment and industrial districts. Running, cycling and lake walks are part of daily life here in a way they are not in King West.

The trade-off is Lake Shore Boulevard itself, along with the Gardiner Expressway just north. This is a busy arterial corridor, and suites facing it will deal with traffic sound. Liberty Village, Fort York and the King West restaurants are all reachable, but this is a different pace from those neighbourhoods. The data panel on this page covers transit and walkability in detail.

My advice is to visit at rush hour and again on a weekend evening. If the suite sits higher up, or faces away from Lake Shore, the road is far less of a factor; a low suite on the Lake Shore face is a different experience, and it should be priced like one.

Pricing: why Tip Top costs more than its neighbours

Condos.ca puts the building average at about $990 per square foot, which is well above many of the glass towers in Liberty Village and CityPlace. That premium is the heritage factor: a designated Art Deco factory, a fixed supply of true loft suites, and a waterfront location that cannot be repeated.

At the time of writing, three suites were listed for sale, with asking prices ranging from about $720,000 to about $1.3 million. With only a few listings at a time and big differences between factory and addition suites, comparables need careful handling here.

For traded prices over the past 12 months, see the sold data panel above, or ask me for a building sold report that separates factory suites from addition suites.

Building specifications

Amenities at Tip Top Lofts

The amenity package is practical rather than flashy: concierge, gym, sauna, party and media rooms, and an outdoor terrace. Here the building itself and the lake nearby do the work that a pool or a long amenity list does in a newer tower.

Jatin’s honest take on Tip Top Lofts

Tip Top Lofts — 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.