Twenty Stewart Lofts, 20 Stewart St: 59 Suites, Fees Cover Heat and Parking

Twenty Stewart is the building I point to when a buyer wants King West without living in a 40-storey tower. It has 59 suites, a charcoal brick and glass face, interiors by Cecconi Simone, and a maintenance fee that covers heat, air conditioning and parking, which is rarer than it should be downtown. The catch is that almost nothing comes up for sale here, so you need to be ready when it does. I’m Jatin Dua, RE/MAX Quantum Realty.

A Freed building with a twin around the corner

Peter Freed is the developer most associated with the modern King West condo, and Twenty Stewart is one of his early boutique buildings. UrbanToronto notes that it sits beside Freed’s first King West project and describes it as a fraternal, not identical, twin of 66 Portland. The family resemblance is deliberate; the finishes are not. Twenty Stewart swapped the lighter palette of its sibling for black finishes and pebbled green glass.

The architect credit is not perfectly clean. UrbanToronto’s database lists Core Architects, while the project description on the same page credits Core alongside a second firm. Interior design is credited to Cecconi Simone, a firm with a long Toronto résumé. If the design pedigree matters to you, that combination is the reason this building still looks considered nearly two decades on.

Freed has kept building on this street. His Thompson Residences, designed by Montreal’s Saucier + Perrotte, has a second building fronting Stewart Street, so Twenty Stewart now sits inside a small Freed precinct rather than standing alone.

What the suites are actually like

This is a soft loft, not a warehouse conversion. Expect a brick feature wall, concrete posts and exposed ductwork, a look that carries into the lobby. You get the loft character without the old-building headaches of a converted factory: the structure, windows and mechanical systems were all built new in the mid-2000s.

The size range is the surprise. Condos.ca puts suites from roughly 495 to 2,738 square feet, which in a 59-suite building means a real mix of compact one-bedrooms and very large penthouse-level homes. A blogTO feature on one of the penthouses describes a private heated lap pool that belongs to that suite, not to the building, which tells you how much variation sits under one roof.

Because the building is small, layouts repeat less than in a tower. Two suites with the same bedroom count can have very different floor plans and outdoor space, so I compare the actual floor plan and square footage, not the label.

Fees that include heat, cooling and parking

The fee inclusions are the strongest practical argument for Twenty Stewart. According to the condos.ca record, the fee covers common elements, water, heat, air conditioning, building insurance and parking. Most downtown buildings from the last ten years bill heating and cooling to your own meter and charge parking separately.

That means a fee comparison against a newer King West tower is not apples to apples. Add back a summer cooling bill, a winter heating bill and a monthly parking charge to the newer building, and Twenty Stewart’s number starts to look reasonable. blogTO also called the fees relatively low for a penthouse of that size. You still pay your own hydro for lights and plugs, and internet; Beanfield Fibre is listed as available.

Small buildings carry a trade-off. Fifty-nine owners share every repair, so a roof, garage or elevator job is spread across fewer people than in a 400-suite tower. That is exactly why the reserve fund study matters more here.

Daily life on Stewart Street

Stewart is a short, quiet street that runs between Bathurst and Portland just south of King. You are a block from King West restaurants and nightlife without having them under your window, which is the main reason people choose a side street over a King Street address.

The area has changed completely. The Globe and Mail described the stretch between Spadina and Bathurst, before the condo wave, as warehouses, garment factories and bars around Victoria Memorial Square. Today it is one of the most built-up residential pockets downtown, and construction is a normal part of living here. The data panel on this page shows the transit, parks and food nearby.

What Twenty Stewart costs per square foot

The condos.ca record puts the building average at about $947 per square foot. For a 2007-era boutique building with heat, cooling and parking inside the fee, that is a premium over many downtown towers of the same age, and it reflects scarcity and the design pedigree more than amenities.

Only one suite was listed for sale when I checked, so there is no range I can fairly publish, and I won’t quote a single listing’s price or fee. With so few active listings, the recent sold data in the panel above is the better guide. When I price a suite here I weight the last two or three years of sales in this building more heavily than tower comparables, because the inclusions and the boutique scale really do change what buyers pay.

If you are selling, low supply works in your favour, but only when the suite is priced against true comparables. My building sold report is the place to start.

Building specifications

Amenities at Twenty Stewart Lofts

There is no pool, gym or concierge tower lobby here; the shared amenities are a recreation room and BBQs. You are paying for the building’s scale and inclusions, not for facilities, so if you want a gym in the building, look elsewhere.

Jatin’s honest take on Twenty Stewart Lofts

Twenty Stewart 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.