If any of these hard lofts inter­est you, please call Lau­rin at 416−388−1960

Authen­tic hard lofts com­mand a pre­mium in Toronto. Gen­er­ally, they start over $300,000 and any­thing that isn’t small is going to be closer to $400,000. If you want over 1,000 square feet or two bed­rooms, expect to pay $500,000 or more. Unfor­tu­nately, there are very few that sell near $250,000 and they are bach­e­lor units. There is also no such thing as a “raw space”. Devel­op­ers do not leave spaces empty, to sell cheap and allow buy­ers to fin­ish. Maybe 10–20 years ago, but there is noth­ing at all like that today.

Toronto has many authen­tic loft conversions

There are 124 authen­tic Toronto hard loft con­ver­sions listed below (as of June 2009), the most exten­sive list of any Toronto loft site. We have spent years com­pil­ing this list and believe it con­tains every sin­gle build­ing con­verted to lofts in Toronto. If you know of any that are not listed here, please email us and we would be more than happy to add your contribution.

By no means are there avail­able list­ings in all of these build­ings. In fact most of them are not cur­rently for sale. This loft list is meant to inform and illus­trate only, to show the wide vari­ety of loft con­ver­sions in Toronto. If you know of any that are not listed here, please email us and we would be more than happy to add your contribution.

A true loft, or hard loft, which to many is the only kind of loft, is usu­ally a con­ver­sion of an older fac­tory or ware­house. The term “hard” comes from hav­ing a harder edge of either con­crete con­struc­tion, or exposed brick and orig­i­nal wood posts, beams and floors. Here, the authen­tic details and atmos­phere are everything.

Ceil­ings should be at least ten feet high (and the higher the bet­ter) – but high ceil­ings does not a loft make. This is increas­ingly very impor­tant for loft pur­chasers, as devel­op­ers are now build­ing con­dos with slightly higher ceil­ings than in the past. It is this height that helps give a hard loft the feel­ing of air and space. Larger win­dows and open con­cept lay­outs also help. Ceil­ings are unfin­ished and pipes and heat­ing ducts are exposed.

You can’t expect to find hard lofts to be divided up into two bed­rooms and a den. It will much more likely have a kitchen and a bath­room with the rest of the space left as one large open room, which you can work with and use accord­ing to your own func­tions and needs. Some peo­ple think a loft means you have a sec­ond mez­za­nine level over­look­ing the floor below, but this is sim­ply one style of loft.

The other great thing about lofts is that most of them are zoned live/work, which makes it eas­ier to oper­ate a busi­ness out of your home. As a tax write off, it will be much more straight for­ward for your accoun­tant and for Rev­enue Canada. But not allow for full busi­ness use, check the zon­ing to be sure!

I get dis­tressed with the way the hard loft term is used these days. We have the stan­dard hard and soft lofts, but I am propos­ing a third cat­e­gory, the “medium” loft. This is the loft that is in a con­verted build­ing, but has none of the char­ac­ter of a true loft. You can call it a con­ver­sion all you like, but no one in the know is ever going to truly think of it as an authenic hard loft.

The Mer­chan­dise Build­ing on Dal­housie is a great exam­ple of this type of medium loft. Yes, the units are in a con­verted ware­house, but where is the indus­trial char­ac­ter? The units are mainly dry­walled con­dos with mar­gin­ally high ceil­ings, some with con­crete floors. If you are lucky, there is half of a col­umn in your hallway.

This is not what loft con­ver­sions are all about. It seems that while Toronto may have a seri­ous thing for lofts these days, we are too wimpy to go for the real thing. We want our indus­trial exte­rior, but have to have our stan­dard cozy crea­ture com­forts inside.

So many peo­ple ask us about “raw” spaces, sim­ple empty shells that they can do with as they please. If you are lucky, you can find one that some­one thought to have the devel­oper leave alone, a loft that is a sin­gle room with some plumb­ing and cook­ing facil­i­ties. But these are few and far between – and gen­er­ally stag­ger­ingly expen­sive when you find them. And to be hon­est, I don’t think I have ever seen one.

I am a huge fan of his­tory, being an avid pho­tog­ra­pher of old build­ings. I love the idea of pre­serv­ing our her­itage in this city as much as we can. Tak­ing old indus­trial or com­mer­cial build­ings and con­vert­ing them into funky liv­ing spaces is a fan­tas­tic idea, one I wish we had jumped on many years ago before we lost a lot of the buildings.

But my one request of the devel­op­ers vying for this seg­ment of the mar­ket is to leave as much char­ac­ter in these build­ings as you can. For those who want the nou­veau soft loft with two lev­els open to each other, let one group of builders cater to them. But if you are going to buy an old build­ing with the thought of con­vert­ing into authen­tic loft spaces, then do so in the truest manner.

Let the brick and wood come through, let the pipes show, let the pil­lars get in the way, leave the con­crete floor. For that is the way the hard loft con­ver­sion is meant to be and this is the way they should stay.

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Wind­sor Lofts
412 Jarvis Street
Con­verted from a century-old apart­ment build­ing, these lofts have a degree of char­ac­ter that is hard to find in a city full of new con­dos. A few of the grand man­sions that once lined the street are still stand­ing and there are major revi­tal­iza­tion plans at work in the area. Most of the lofts have bal­conies, dec­o­ra­tive fire­places and 9-foot ceil­ings. They have been artis­ti­cally restored and ren­o­vated. This is the only New York-style brown­stone that is avail­able in Toronto. Bay win­dows and large bath­rooms add to the feel of old world lux­ury. Prices are low for the size, as are the condo fees. Email or phone 416−388−1960 today if this build­ing inter­ests you.

Grange Lofts
4-6B Grange Avenue
Rare for the area, this small con­ver­sion is a New York-style walkup at Grange Park. Housed in a Small Char­ac­ter Build­ing Circa 1910, the 15 units in this his­toric build­ing are all in the 900–1,100 square foot range. Located on a quiet tree-shaded res­i­den­tal street in cen­tral Toronto. The Grange Lofts are open con­cept, with exposed brick and hard­wood floors. Wood­burn­ing fire­places add to the period charm. Grange Park was Toronto’s first elite neigh­bour­hood. It is named after Grange House, built in 1817, by D’Arcy Boul­ton Jr., a mem­ber of one of early Toronto’s wealth­i­est and most promi­nent fam­i­lies. Email or phone 416−388−1960 today if this build­ing inter­ests you.

The Man­sions at Jarvis
539 Jarvis Street
At a time when city dwellers trea­sure unique liv­ing spaces more than ever before, the con­ver­sion of one of Jarvis Street’s orig­i­nal man­sions is truly sig­nif­i­cant. In terms of his­tory, archi­tec­tural merit and its cen­tral down­town loca­tion, the Man­sions at Jarvis is one of the most excit­ing projects the city has to offer. The man­sion was orig­i­nally built in the late 19^th cen­tury, in the heart of the Jarvis Man­sion Dis­trict. On this street, wealthy landown­ers built their dream homes, and today’s res­i­dents are painstak­ingly restor­ing these homes to their for­mer glory. Prior to the con­ver­sion, Man­sions at Jarvis was known as the pop­u­lar din­ing spot, Julie’s Man­sion. Just next door is where Canada’s once-Governor Gen­eral Vin­cent Massey and his brother, actor Ray­mond Massey, were raised. Email or phone 416−388−1960 today if this build­ing inter­ests you.

The Ninety Lofts
90 Broad­view Avenue
The project will com­bine new con­struc­tion with the con­ve­rion of an early 1900s ware­house to cre­ate refined new loft liv­ing along Queen Street East. Com­bin­ing the orig­i­nal archi­tectue of the early 20^th cen­tury with the crisp lines of mod­ern design to form a stun­ning 9-storey res­i­dence. The Ninety Lofts will fea­ture large win­dows to allow nat­ural light to flood the lofty inte­ri­ors, while exposed con­crete and brick walls empha­size the loft expe­ri­ence. The brick exte­rior, with the exten­sive use of dis­tinc­tive mul­lioned win­dows, will ensure a com­fort­able fit within the River­side neigh­bour­hood. Email or phone 416−388−1960 today if this build­ing inter­ests you.

Kor­mann House Lofts
Queen and Sher­bourne
Located at the cor­ner of Queen and Sher­bourne in the east end of Toronto, the pre-construction Kor­mann House Lofts is brought to you by KC Devel­op­ments. In the late 19^th cen­tury, Toronto’s lower east side was home to thriv­ing busi­nesses, Char­lie Chap­lin and Mary Pick­ford films for a nickel and the stun­ning Moss Park. All this set the scene for Frantz Kormann’s styl­ish hotel, The Kor­mann House which opened its doors in 1897 anchor­ing the cor­ner of Queen Street and Sher­bourne. Over one hun­dred years later, The Kor­mann House will be restored to its past grandeur and trans­formed into a stun­ning 10 storey tower of glass and steel ris­ing from its core. Embrace your inner style with one of only 57 city authen­tic and mod­ern lofts, com­plete with floor to ceil­ing glass and 9-foot ceil­ings through­out. Email or phone 416−388−1960 today if this build­ing inter­ests you.

Masonic Hall Lofts
2 Glouces­ter Street
Masonic Hall Lofts are Toronto’s most cen­tral hard Lofts. Just con­verted in 2007, the devel­oper kept the major­ity of the lofts as rental prop­er­ties. Fea­tures and fin­ishes dif­fer from unit to unit – some units have orig­i­nal brick walls while oth­ers offers 20-foot ceil­ings with mas­sive sky­lights. There are approx 20 units, though only one has come up for sale since com­ple­tion. Right at the cor­ner of Yonge and Glouces­ter, it is a her­itage build­ing that was pro­tected by the city in 1973. Right between Bloor and Welles­ley, you can’t get much more down­town than this. Lit­er­ally steps the sub­way, all that Yonge and Church Streets have to offer, restau­rants, shop­ping and more. Email or phone 416−388−1960 today if this build­ing inter­ests you.

Brock Lofts
27–31 Brock Street
Located at 27–31 Brock Street just north of Queen Street West and west of Duf­ferin Street, the Brock Lofts has a rus­tic urban appeal to it and con­tains only 23 loft units rang­ing from 350 to 1,600 square feet. These authen­tic loft con­ver­sions fea­ture all the loft good­ies, includ­ing exposed brick, hard­wood floors, soar­ing 12’-18’ ceil­ings and some of the orig­i­nal wood columns and beams. There are no facil­i­ties and condo fees are a bit high, though all inclu­sive. The Brock Lofts is a won­der­ful lit­tle ware­house con­ver­sion that sur­prises many when they first walk in. Email or phone 416−388−1960 today if this build­ing inter­ests you.

St. Clarens Lofts
686–692 St. Clarens Avenue
The St. Clarens Lofts are the kind of loft most peo­ple only dream about. Only 10 units in this hid­den loft con­vr­sion in Duf­ferin Grove. Some of the big ones range up to approx­i­mately 2,000 square feet, with tons of light-filled space, soar­ing ceil­ings and dra­matic sight lines. Rarely does a unit become avail­able in this unique & eclec­tic live/work loft con­ver­sion. Con­verted from an old fac­tory in 1990, there is not a lot of infor­ma­tion avail­able on these hard lofts. They are all multi-level lofts, with two or three bed­rooms. Each loft pro­vides for a unique liv­ing and work­ing space set in the diverse neigh­bour­hood of Lans­downe and Dupont. Email or phone 416−388−1960 today if this build­ing inter­ests you.

Annex Lofts
113–115 Dupont Street
The Annex Lofts are an amaz­ing lux­ury loft con­ver­sion at 113–115 dupont street in a unique con­ver­sion from a com­mer­cial build­ing. Inti­mate 7 suite build­ing in a fan­tas­tic Annex loca­tion on Dupont between Bed­ford and Dav­en­port. Stun­ning con­tem­po­rary fin­ishes con­trast with the amaz­ing orig­i­nal con­crete loft struc­ture. Extra­or­di­nary liv­ing spaces with great light, high ceil­ings and expan­sive wall spaces per­fect for art. True loft liv­ing in a great neigh­bour­hood set­ting. Email or phone 416−388−1960 today if this build­ing inter­ests you.

The Glebe Lofts
660 Pape Avenue
Very rarely does an oppor­tu­nity come along to live in his­tory. Designed by renowned period archi­tect J. Wil­son Gray, orig­i­nally con­structed for the trustees of the Riverdale Pres­by­ter­ian Church, this impos­ing archi­tec­tural build­ing was retro­fit­ted, entirely within the exist­ing enve­lope, into only 32 aston­ish­ing multi-level loft res­i­dences. Erected in 1920 as an exten­sion to the orig­i­nal 1912 Riverdale Pres­by­ter­ian Church, this con­ver­sion pays homage to the soar­ing height of the orig­i­nal sanc­tu­ary in all of its two storey pri­mary liv­ing spaces, fea­tur­ing large open plans, expan­sive inter­con­nected to flow with the build­ing space. Each res­i­dence was cus­tom designed to opti­mize the dra­matic effects of light and spa­tial vol­ume – incor­po­rat­ing solid masonry demis­ing walls, ther­mopane win­dows, supe­rior ther­mal and acousti­cal insu­la­tion, indi­vid­ual high effi­ciency heat­ing sys­tems, all new elec­tri­cal and mechan­i­cal sys­tems, and a host of lux­ury fea­tures. Email or phone 416−388−1960 today if this build­ing inter­ests you.

Beach House Lofts
1842 Queen Street East
The Beach House Lofts were the much antic­i­pated sequel to the Acad­emy Lane Lofts, both by Street­car Devel­op­ments. Open space and light are all yours on the inside, while the Beaches Com­mu­nity and all it has to offer is lit­er­ally right out­side the lobby door. The Beach House Lofts boast 12–20″ ceil­ings, large out­door spaces and gourmet kitchens includ­ing stone coun­ters and stain­less steel appli­ances. Exposed brick walls and wood ceil­ings are found in most of the units. Sen­sa­tional views over­look­ing down­town and the lake are one of the many fea­tures that Beach House Lofts has to offer. Email or phone 416−388−1960 today if this build­ing inter­ests you.

Madi­son Avenue Lofts
380 MacPher­son Avenue
The con­ver­sion of an old Toronto Hydro office and stor­age build­ing into an upscale, New York-style loft is gen­er­at­ing a steady cur­rent of inter­est. The his­toric struc­ture, built in 1951 at the foot of Casa Loma, houses the Madi­son Avenue Lofts, with 211 units fea­tur­ing ceil­ings 10– to 14-feet high. The hydro facil­ity, located at Madi­son and MacPher­son avenues, was very costly to rebuild and refur­bish, but it was the only way to keep its orig­i­nal columns, tall ceil­ings, stair­wells and ban­is­ters. Archi­tect Paul North­grave added two storeys to the top, and com­bined indus­trial archi­tec­ture with art deco designs. Email or phone 416−388−1960 today if this build­ing inter­ests you.

Bloor­line Lofts
284 St. Helens Avenue
Each suite is dif­fer­ent from the next with gigan­tic win­dows, brick walls, exposed ducts and beams, and wooden ceil­ings. It’s easy to get cre­ative when dec­o­rat­ing and turn­ing the open spaces into some­thing uniquely yours. Located in the heart of an estab­lished neigh­bour­hood just a two-minute walk away from the Lans­downe sub­way sta­tion on the Bloor line, the Bloor­line Lofts are just min­utes from the eclec­tic shops and restau­rants of Ron­ces­valles Vil­lage and Bloor West Vil­lage, and the tran­quil beauty of High Park. Email or phone 416−388−1960 today if this build­ing inter­ests you.

Toy Fac­tory Lofts
43 Hanna Avenue
The Toy Fac­tory Lofts trans­formed the old Irwin Toy Fac­tory into 215 hard lofts. The old­est parts of the build­ing were con­structed around the turn of the 20^th cen­tury and cer­tain sec­tions of the brick walls are sev­eral feet in thick­ness and steel ceil­ing beams com­bined with solid Dou­glas fir posts are not only rare, but also irre­place­able. The Toy Fac­tory kept and reju­ve­nated every­thing by sand­blast­ing until it all looks young and fresh again. The Toy Fac­tory Lofts are the only loft con­ver­sions in in Lib­erty Vil­lage. Email or phone 416−388−1960 today if this build­ing inter­ests you.

Tip Top Lofts
637 Lake Shore Boule­vard
The Tip Top Lofts are housed in a Toronto land­mark. Designed by Bishop and Miller archi­tects in a clas­sic Art Deco style, the build­ing was com­pleted in 1929 and housed the man­u­fac­tur­ing, ware­hous­ing, retail and office oper­a­tions of Tip Top Tai­lors Ltd. Con­verted to lofts in 2006 (includ­ing a 6 storey rooftop addi­tion) the Tip Top lofts fea­ture 256 lofts rang­ing in size from 600 to 2,580 square feet with over 50 unique floor­plans. The build­ing is walk­ing dis­tance to Ontario Place, a quick ferry ride to Toronto Island and only min­utes to the enter­tain­ment dis­trict or finan­cial core. The lofts them­selves are also unique; two sto­ries high on aver­age, they are spa­cious and com­fort­able. Email or phone 416−388−1960 today if this build­ing inter­ests you.

Gothic Her­itage Estates
32 Gothic Avenue
Rather than ware­house chic, many cur­rent loft con­ver­sions offer lux­u­ri­ous set­tings and excep­tional fin­ishes and fea­tures, appeal­ing to buy­ers who want both vin­tage style and mod­ern con­ve­niences. These days, loft con­ver­sions crop up in even the finest neigh­bor­hoods. A stately old High Park man­sion that was built for the first mayor of West Toronto in 1889, des­ig­nated under the Ontario Her­itage Act, has been ren­o­vated to cre­ate seven custom-designed and upgraded loft res­i­dences. Each of the seven suites (six are 1,500 square feet each and one is 1,800 square feet) offers a pri­vate court­yard or ter­race with views of High Park, grace­ful rooms and period details. Email or phone 416−388−1960 today if this build­ing inter­ests you.

Choco­late Com­pany Lofts
955 Queen Street West
Next door to the Candy Fac­tory Lofts, the Choco­late Com­pany Lofts are located at 955 Queen Street West. The Choco­late Com­pany Lofts in Toronto offer a mix of orig­i­nal loft archi­tec­ture and brand new indus­trial Bauhaus-style lofts, set in the desir­able and eclec­tic Queen West neigh­bour­hood. The old part of the build­ing includes wood slate or cor­ru­gated steel barn-style ceil­ings, wooden posts, steel beams, exposed brick, huge win­dows and high ceil­ings. New con­struc­tion offers barn style doors, con­crete ceil­ings, steel beams and floor to ceil­ing win­dows. Email or phone 416−388−1960 today if this build­ing inter­ests you.

Argyle Authen­tic Lofts
183 Dover­court Road
Ris­ing five sto­ries, The Argyle Lofts was and remains the tallest struc­ture in the imme­di­ate neigh­bour­hood. The dis­tinc­tive cor­ner bak­ery entrance con­tin­ued as the the con­verted loft’s front door, with the clock retained as a reminder of the building’s indus­trial past. The his­tory and charm of this build­ing sets it apart from other indus­trial loft con­ver­sions in Toronto mak­ing it truly one-of-a-kind. The Argyle Lofts con­verted the 1919 land­mark Edwardian-style for­mer bak­ery into 86 lofts. The two-storey pent­house lofts afford spec­tac­u­lar city views and have pri­vate roof decks. The pent­houses are set back from the façade so not to detract from the archi­tec­ture and are not vis­i­ble from the street below. Ground-floor units fac­ing the street have pri­vate front yards. Email or phone 416−388−1960 today if this build­ing inter­ests you.

Robert Wat­son Lofts
363–369 Sorau­ren Avenue
The vin­tage build­ing mak­ing up half of the loft con­ver­sion fronts on to Sorau­ren Avenue. It is the century-old Robert Wat­son ware­house (built in 1907) that was been restored and con­verted into vin­tage lofts, as one of the few authen­tic loft con­ver­sions in the city. With exposed century-old brick, wood ceilings/columns and 10– to 16-foot ceil­ings, the project stands out as one of Toronto’s finest loft con­ver­sions ever. It is loaded with spec­tac­u­lar raw fin­ishes includ­ing gran­ite and stain­less steel appli­ances. The new loft build­ing is a six-storey soft loft with high ceil­ings, pol­ished con­crete floors, con­crete columns and expan­sive glass with spec­tac­u­lar views. Email or phone 416−388−1960 today if this build­ing inter­ests you.

The Abbey Lofts
384 Sun­ny­side Avenue
The Abbey Lofts is a 24 unit project cre­ated in a neo-Gothic church that was built in the Medieval Revival style in 1911. The light-grey solid lime­stone walls and stone cladding of archi­tect William George Burns’ church, built for a Methodist con­gre­ga­tion, are unchanged in nearly a cen­tury. The Abbey Lofts have open-concept liv­ing spaces, with galley-style kitchens and island eat­ing areas. Some have stairs down to sunken liv­ing rooms, which can lead to a den or extra bed­room reached through dou­ble doors. The Abbey Lofts are located in a con­verted church sit­u­ated between Ron­ces­valles Avenue and High Park in a high-demand com­mu­nity. Email or phone 416−388−1960 today if this build­ing inter­ests you.

The West­more­land Lofts
40 West­more­land Avenue
Stand­ing proudly in Bloor­court Vil­lage near Bloor and Oss­ing­ton, this his­tor­i­cal church is being trans­formed into huge lux­u­ri­ous lofts while pre­serv­ing the integrity and beauty of the orig­i­nal struc­ture. The loft res­i­dences of The West­more­land have been cre­atively and sen­si­tively designed to cap­i­tal­ize on the grandeur of the soar­ing cathe­dral ceil­ings and the rich detail­ing of stone columns, cap­i­tals, ham­mer­head wood trusses and majes­tic brick gothic arches and win­dows. 40 West­more­land is located mere steps away from Bloor Street in Bloor­court Vil­lage. Email or phone 416−388−1960 today if this build­ing inter­ests you.

St. George on Shel­drake
65 Shel­drake Boule­vard
In 2001, the church sanc­tu­ary at 65 Shel­drake Boule­vard, which had been vacant at the time, was con­verted into lofts for res­i­den­tial use. The church hall and Sun­day School build­ings, which had been used for pri­vate day school pur­poses, was demol­ished and rebuilt in sub­stan­tially the same form. The exist­ing detached house at 39 Shel­drake Boule­vard was also demol­ished. Under­ground park­ing was carved out from beneath the con­verted church. Most of the units are well over 1,000 square feet, with some larger than many homes at over 4,000 square feet. Since only 33 units were con­verted into lofts from the orig­i­nal church space, the devel­oper man­aged to make every loft a large alter­na­tive to a house. Most of the authen­tic loft units have pri­vate out­door amenity space in the form of bal­conies or gar­dens. Indoor and out­door com­mon amenity space is also pro­vided. Email or phone 416−388−1960 today if this build­ing inter­ests you.

Brock­ton Lofts
20 Brock­ton Street
The Brock­ton Lofts is a loft con­ver­sion built and com­pleted in the mid-1980s, with only 18 suites, all with sep­a­rate entrances, sit­u­ated off a back alley, east of Brock Street between Queen Street West and Dun­das Street West. An old ware­house, 20 Brock­ton is located right on a 24-hour street­car line. The Brock­ton Lofts are a con­verted ware­house with 12 foot ceil­ings con­sist­ing of two and three storey units. They have true loft details such as sand­blasted wood ceil­ings and orig­i­nal maple plank floors. Email or phone 416−388−1960 today if this build­ing inter­ests you.

Candy Fac­tory Lofts
993 Queen Street West
This is the one that started the Toronto loft craze! The Candy Fac­tory Lofts fea­tures lofts con­verted from a century-old candy fac­tory. The lofts have 12-foot ceil­ings, exposed brick and tim­ber, taste­fully exposed duct­work, real hard­wood floors, large win­dow panes and top-of-the-line inte­rior fin­ishes. Ameni­ties include a 24-hour concierge, live-in super­in­ten­dent, a guest suite, party room, fit­ness room, and over­sized hall­ways. The two storey pent­houses have large ter­races. Trinity-Bellwoods Park is at your front door and 24-hour street­car access is at your front door. The Candy Fac­tory Lofts range in size from 950 square feet to 2,500 square feet and larger. Prices start in the $500s and can eas­ily hit dou­ble that. Email or phone 416−388−1960 today if this build­ing inter­ests you.

But­ton Fac­tory Lofts
200 Clin­ton Avenue
A for­mer but­ton fac­tory con­verted to two and three storey authen­tic lofts with ceil­ings of 11 feet up to dou­ble that. Many of the orig­i­nal indus­trial fea­tures such as wood beams, exposed brick and authen­tic hard­wood floors remain. There are only 13 lofts in this con­ver­sion, rang­ing in size from 1,300 to 2,400 square feet. Much of the orig­i­nal charm of the build­ing has been pre­served. No util­i­ties are cov­ered in the con­dos fees. This loft on Clin­ton is very close to Lit­tle Italy. Prices are high, due to the large sizes and great loca­tion. Email or phone 416−388−1960 today if this build­ing inter­ests you.

Creed Lofts
295 Dav­en­port Road
Orig­i­nally the Creed fur stor­age build­ing, this con­ver­sion con­sists of 19 units that are art deco inspired, and roughly 800–1,200 square feet, with ceil­ings up to 13 feet. Accents include ter­races, atri­ums, sky­lights, hard­wood floors, gas fire­place, open con­cept kitchen. Some suites are multi-level and share an inside atrium. Steps from Yorkville this build­ing is a favorite for many upscale pro­fes­sion­als. Condo fees are rea­son­able (util­i­ties extra) and once again due to its small size there are no facil­i­ties. The great­est appeal of these con­verted lofts is the loca­tion – at the edge of the Annex, and just steps to Yorkville. Email or phone 416−388−1960 today if this build­ing inter­ests you.

Gotham Lofts
781 King Street West
781 King Street West was orig­i­nally a com­mer­cial build­ing, serv­ing as the head office of The Adams Broth­ers Har­ness Man­u­fac­tur­ing Com­pany, Ltd. from 1917 to 1953. Located in the Toronto’s his­toric Fash­ion Dis­trict, the build­ing later func­tioned as the home for a num­ber of textile-related busi­ness, and then later, busi­ness offices. The lofts have exposed brick, wooden post columns, and hard­wood floors. Many lofts are two storey lay­outs rang­ing from 625 to 1,900 square feet. Under­ground park­ing is shared with the Citysh­pere condo build­ing next door located at 801 King Street West. The build­ing was con­verted into res­i­den­tial lofts in 1996 and Gotham Vin­tage Lofts was born. Email or phone 416−388−1960 today if this build­ing inter­ests you.

Hep­bourne Hall Lofts
110 Hep­bourne Street
Con­verted from a gothic church manse, the Hep­bourne Hall Lofts con­sist of 20 units rang­ing from a 550 square foot stu­dio to a 2,200+ square foot multi-level, multi-bedroom loft. Orig­i­nal hard­wood floors (re-used from the old gyna­sium) and the 12-foot ceil­ing heights cre­ate a true loft feel. There are no ameni­ties or concierge. Hep­bourne Hall is located just west of Dover­court and just south of Bloor Street West. Email or phone 416−388−1960 today if this build­ing inter­ests you.

Indus­trial Rev­o­lu­tion Lofts
676 Rich­mond Street West
Orig­i­nally a knit­ting mill, the Indus­trial Rev­o­lu­tion Lofts has a con­crete wall sep­a­rat­ing each unit, mak­ing this one of the best loft con­ver­sions in the area. The lofts range from 750 square feet to 2,000+ square feet. Each unit has a fire­place, bal­cony, hard­wood floors and high ceil­ings of 10 to 16 feet. Each loft also has one under­ground park­ing space. The Indus­trial Rev­o­lu­tion Lofts are located just west of Bathurst street on Rich­mond. Email or phone 416−388−1960 today if this build­ing inter­ests you.

Kens­ing­ton Mar­ket Lofts
160 Bald­win Street & 21 Nas­sau Street
Located near Spad­ina and Col­lege, the two build­ings that make up Kens­ing­ton lofts were for­merly owned by George Brown Col­lege. The orig­i­nal ter­razzo floors remain through­out the hall­ways and stair­ways, accented with mod­ern fin­ishes. Inte­rior fin­ishes include cork, bam­boo, or hard­wood floors, large open con­cept gourmet kitchens, and mez­za­nine lev­els pro­vid­ing up to 20 foot ceil­ing height. Ameni­ties include a party room and a meet­ing room. The lofts, which total over 140 units, range in size from one bed­room to multi-level two bed­rooms plus den with spa­cious ter­races. The Kens­ing­ton Mar­ket Lofts are cen­trally located in the Kens­ing­ton mar­ket, which bus­tles with some of the city’s best bou­tiques, spe­cialty shops and inter­na­tional gro­ceries. Email or phone 416−388−1960 today if this build­ing inter­ests you.

Pop Fac­tory Lofts
115 Man­ning Street
Com­pleted in 1986, the Pop Fac­tory Lofts on Man­ning are another of Toronto’s orig­i­nal loft con­ver­sions. This 6 unit con­verted low-rise pop fac­tory loft has it all – it has the fea­tures of a loft and a town­house – with a gar­den ter­race at the back. The Man­ning Lofts are a very pri­vate and quiet loft con­ver­sion in the trendy Queen West area. Open con­cept with exposed ducts, and city vista from the rooftop ter­race. Sizes range between 725 one bed­room to 1700 square feet two bed­room loft. Slid­ing glass doors offer a walk­out to the gar­den patio. Email or phone 416−388−1960 today if this build­ing inter­ests you.

Massey Har­ris Lofts
915 King Street West
The Massey Har­ris Lofts, con­structed in 1883, were con­verted from the red brick office build­ing that was designed by Edward James Lennox, one of Toronto’s lead­ing archi­tects (who would go on to design Old City Hall). For close to a cen­tury, it served the com­pany as it evolved into Massey-Ferguson and even­tu­ally Var­ity Corp. In 1973, the build­ing was listed as a her­itage prop­erty. Located at 915 King Street West, the Massey Har­ris Lofts fea­ture 11-foot ceil­ings and vin­tage brick walls. The lofts fea­ture baths with all glass show­ers and radi­ant floor heat­ing. A true loft con­ver­sion that is always highly desired. Email or phone 416−388−1960 today if this build­ing inter­ests you.

Movie House Lofts
394 Euclid Avenue
Once an actual movie house, the orig­i­nal facade of this com­plex was saved in the ren­o­va­tion. Just 18 units exist in the build­ing and there are no park­ing facil­i­ties. The Movie House Lofts are multi-storey lofts, with the top level units hav­ing roof ter­races. The liv­ing room/dining areas usu­ally have 16 foot ceil­ings with a mez­za­nine over­look­ing the area below. Loft sizes range from a 730 square foot one bed­room on one level, to a 1300 square foot two bed­room on three lev­els. Before movies, it was the West­ern Dis­trict Orange Hall, built in 1913. Email or phone 416−388−1960 today if this build­ing inter­ests you.

Noble Court Lofts
24 Noble Street
The lofts on Noble Street tend to be some of the most afford­able hard lofts in all of Toronto. The Noble Court Lofts are located at Queen Street West at Duf­ferin. The build­ing was con­verted from indus­trial offices to live and/or work spaces in 1989 fea­tur­ing 10−1÷2 foot ceil­ings, exposed brick walls, hard­wood floors, tim­ber columns and beams, and large win­dows. 24 Noble Street offers authen­tic lofts at rea­son­able prices, with more charm and char­ac­ter than most of the rest. There are no ameni­ties at The Noble Lofts, which are reflected in the rel­a­tively low monthly main­te­nance fees. Park­ing is avail­able on a first come first serve basis. Email or phone 416−388−1960 today if this build­ing inter­ests you.

Oxford Lofts
75 Markham Street
Located at 75 Markham Street in Toronto, and orig­i­nally hous­ing the Oxford Pic­ture Frame Fac­tory (which had recently relo­cated from Oxford Street) this 1930s indus­trial gem was con­verted in 1986 into 16 multi-level loft res­i­dences, retain­ing many of the orig­i­nal heavy tim­ber and brick details from its pre­vi­ous use. Typ­i­cal loft attrib­utes include exposed brick, hard­wood floors, fire­places, tim­ber columns, and steel joists. Ceil­ing heights range between 10–20 feet. Under­ground park­ing avail­able. Lofts range from 1,000 to 1,900 square feet with one, two or three bed­rooms. Email or phone 416−388−1960 today if this build­ing inter­ests you.

Sorau­ren Lofts
347 Sorau­ren Avenue
Ini­tially a ball bear­ing fac­tory, 347 Sorau­ren is actu­ally a com­pos­ite of the ini­tial mill style ware­house with two new addi­tions, fea­tur­ing a com­bi­na­tion of inter­est­ing indus­trial fin­ishes. Fea­tures include 15 foot ceil­ings with mas­sive tim­ber columns and beams. Vin­tage meets con­tem­po­rary at the 48-unit Sorau­ren Lofts build­ing, one of the few true loft con­ver­sions. Dra­mat­i­cally high metal ceil­ings with open web steel joists and 6′ win­dows are among the loft’s unique char­ac­ter­is­tics. Email or phone 416−388−1960 today if this build­ing inter­ests you.

Tecum­seth Lofts
766 King Street West
The Tecum­seth Lofts are a ren­o­va­tion from an exist­ing com­mer­cial build­ing with ceil­ing heights aver­ag­ing 11′ but soar­ing to 28′ in some places. Suites range from 2 story two bed­room lofts of 1,600 sq ft with ter­race to 750 sq ft open loft spaces. Sky­lights, gas fire­places, gran­ite coun­ters, hard­wood floors and Jacuzzi baths are some of the fea­tures in many of the lofts as well as open con­cept kitchens and maple shaker cab­i­nets. Email or phone 416−388−1960 today if this build­ing inter­ests you.

West 833 Lofts
833 King Street West
West 833 is one of King West’s most dis­tinc­tive lofts, a for­mer per­fume fac­tory con­verted into 52 lofts, located in one of Toronto’s most hap­pen­ing neigh­bour­hoods, King West Vil­lage. Sit­u­ated west of Bathurst on the south side of King at Nia­gara, West 833 is located close to every­thing. This is one of King Street’s most unique build­ings, com­prised of two inter­con­nected build­ings – one a dis­tinc­tive 1930′s per­fume fac­tory rec­og­nized by the Toronto His­tor­i­cal Board, the other a mod­ern com­ple­ment. Each of the lofts boast an open con­cept design with high ceil­ings along and expan­sive win­dows, mak­ing each unit feel bright and spa­cious. Email or phone 416−388−1960 today if this build­ing inter­ests you.

West­side Lofts
700 King Street West
The West­side Lofts is a suc­cess­ful ren­o­va­tion of a for­mer office build­ing, designed by world reknown Young and Wright Archi­tects. Sit­u­ated in the North­west cor­ner of Bathurst and King in one of Toronto’s most upcom­ing and trendy loca­tions – King West. The West­side Lofts’ fea­tures are impres­sive and dra­matic – 11–1/2″ ceil­ings, hall­ways are wide and the win­dows are over­sized, and the suites are spa­cious. The suites have barn­yard style doors, mir­rored clos­ets with lots of space and park­ing is under­ground. Email or phone 416−388−1960 today if this build­ing inter­ests you.

Worx Lofts (Monarch Build­ing)
436 Welling­ton Street West
Worx Lofts (Monarch Build­ing)
436 Welling­ton Street West

Acad­emy Lane Lofts
1852 Queen Street East
Orig­i­nally an armory, the Acad­emy Lane Lofts is one of the only loft con­ver­sions in the Beaches. Already rich with his­tory, includ­ing a box­ing club that acted as a train­ing ground for the leg­endary Larry Holmes and a bowl­ing alley that defined the block, this early 20^th cen­tury build­ing was rede­fined by Street­car, bring­ing urban loft liv­ing to Toronto’s Beaches Dis­trict. Lofty fea­tures include exposed beam con­struc­tion on the 3^rd floor mez­za­nine ceil­ings, solid wood entrance doors with pol­ished chrome hard­ware, gourmet kitchens with gran­ite counter tops and top of the line fin­ishes. Email or phone 416−388−1960 today if this build­ing inter­ests you.

Brew­ery Lofts
90 Sumach Street
A mas­sive six story for­mer CBC prop ware­house (it was never a brew­ery, oddly enough) located at Queen Street East and Sumach. Most of the Brew­ery Lofts fea­ture con­crete floors and ceil­ings with huge con­crete mush­room columns with ceil­ing heights of 14 feet. Park­ing is located inside on the first and sec­ond floors. Facil­i­ties include a party room, fit­ness room, and con­fer­ence areas. The build­ing fea­tures a secu­rity sys­tem but no guard or concierge. The Brew­ery Lofts are all huge, gen­er­ally in the 1,200–1,600 square foot range, with some even larger. Email or phone 416−388−1960 today if this build­ing inter­ests you.

6 Bartlett Lofts
6 Bartlett Avenue
6 Bartlett Avenue is one of the first Toronto loft con­ver­sions. Each loft typ­i­cally pro­vides three lev­els of open-concept liv­ing space. The Bartlett Lofts are an inti­mate 13-unit loft con­ver­sion with numer­ous light­wells and sky­lights. Lofty fea­tures include exposed brick, hard­wood floors through­out, walk-out to a large pri­vate cedar roof top ter­race, fire­places, and high ceil­ings. Each of the lofts has access to park­ing in a sep­a­rate exte­rior garage. The lofts of 6 Bartlett Avenue are just steps to the Bloor sub­way line and shop­ping. Email or phone 416−388−1960 today if this build­ing inter­ests you.

8 Bartlett Lofts
8 Bartlett Avenue
This loft con­ver­sion was com­pleted in 2002 by Alice Street Hold­ings, and is located just east of Duf­ferin St. and north of Bloor St. The build­ing was orig­i­nally estab­lished in 1907 as a rope man­u­fac­tur­ing facil­ity. This inti­mate loft devel­op­ment con­tains 6 units rang­ing in size from 1,090 to 1,390 square feet. Loft fea­tures include: 2 level liv­ing space, exposed wood columns and beams, 13 foot ceil­ings, and sky­lights. Condo fees are low. A dou­ble park­ing space is included with one of the units, with oth­ers requir­ing street per­mit park­ing. Email or phone 416−388−1960 today if this build­ing inter­ests you.

i-Zone Lofts
326 Car­law Avenue & 1159/1173 Dun­das Street East
Located at Car­law and Dun­das, in Leslieville, this low rise build­ing houses 76 of Toronto’s most indus­trial funky lofts. i-Zone’s units are all legal live/work spaces, and are espe­cially pop­u­lar with artists work­ing in the Stu­dio Dis­trict. Some of the lofts have rooftop ter­races, or at least the option to build out­door space above the loft. The units were orig­i­nally sold as raw loft space, with many own­ers choos­ing to upgrade the kithens and bath­rooms. The i-Zone Lofts offer unique lay­outs with easy access to the Gar­diner & DVP. Email or phone 416−388−1960 today if this build­ing inter­ests you.

Cen­tury Lofts
365 Dun­das Street East
The Cen­tury Lofts are an impres­sive south Cab­bage­town Art Deco fac­tory con­verted to lofts. The lofts have 11′ ceil­ing heights, con­crete mush­room columns, large indus­trial win­dows and orig­i­nal ter­razzo floors. Some lofts are ideal for work/live space since they have both street and build­ing access. The lofts range in size from smaller 550 square foot units up to large 2 bed­room lofts at 1,100 square feet. Very Low main­te­nance fees since no ameni­ties. Email or phone 416−388−1960 today if this build­ing inter­ests you.

Derby Lofts
393 King Street East
The Derby Lofts are located at the cor­ner of King and Par­lia­ment Streets and was built in 1989 as invest­ment suites for loft lovers but has now become fully owner occu­pied. It has 16′ ceil­ings in the liv­ing /dining areas and all units have 2 bed­rooms and park­ing; some have ter­races and wood-burning fire­places. The Derby will remain a great invest­ment, as it is located close to the trendy and hap­pen­ing Dis­tillery Dis­trict area. Email or phone 416−388−1960 today if this build­ing inter­ests you.

Impe­r­ial Lofts
80 / 90 Sher­bourne Street
The Impe­r­ial Lofts are located on the north­west cor­ner of Sher­bourne Street and Ade­laide Street East. They con­sist of a 6-storey red brick loft build­ing and a 3-storey yel­low brick art deco struc­ture. The 6-storey mill style struc­ture fea­tures exposed wood beams and brick walls as well as 10−1÷2 foot ceil­ings. The art deco build­ing has con­crete columns and ceil­ings. Impe­r­ial Loft sizes vary from 780 square feet to 1,300 square feet. There is no concierge or facil­i­ties so it has decent main­te­nance fees. Email or phone 416−388−1960 today if this build­ing inter­ests you.

Knit­ting Mill Lofts
426 Queen Street East
The Knit­ting Mill Lofts is a con­verted fac­tory located on Queen Street East between River and Par­lia­ment Streets. These lofts are true open con­cept units with exposed brick walls, wood beams, hard­wood floors and 11′ ceil­ing heights. There are only 28 units in the Knit­ting Mill Lofts, rang­ing from 600 square foot stu­dios up to 1,200 square foot 2 bed­room lofts. Main­te­nance fees are low with util­i­ties extra. Park­ing is out­side with a very lim­ited num­ber of spots. Email or phone 416−388−1960 today if this build­ing inter­ests you.

Lib­erty Lofts
383 Ade­laide Street
The Lib­erty Lofts are located just east of Sher­bourne street at Ade­laide and are a con­ver­sion from the old Gillette Razor Fac­tory. The Lib­erty Lofts are houed in a beau­ti­ful old style loft with enor­mous con­crete columns and brick posts, and the orig­i­nal court­yard was main­tained by installing a sky­light. Now an atrium, the gor­geous court­yard can be seen as one rides up the ele­va­tor. Park­ing is at a pre­mium as there are only spaces for the pent­house lofts. The Lib­erty Lofts are a great value in down­town Toronto. Email or phone 416−388−1960 today if this build­ing inter­ests you.

Mer­chan­dise Build­ing Lofts
155 Dal­housie Street
The Mer­chan­dise Lofts are located near Dun­das and Church Streets. The Mer­chan­dise Build­ing is Toronto’s largest loft con­ver­sion with over 500 suites rang­ing from 450 to 2,500 sq ft. The lofts fea­tures 12-foot ceil­ings, exposed con­crete ceil­ings, pol­ished con­crete or hard­wood floors, and mas­sive mush­room columns. Glass-partitioned bath­rooms, ele­vated bed­rooms, gran­ite, open-concept kitchens and huge solid maple slid­ing doors are some of the key fea­tures. The Merch has some of the best facil­i­ties of any loft build­ing, includ­ing 24-hour concierge, out­door pool, party room, bas­ket­ball court, fit­ness facil­i­ties, guest suites and the best rooftop in Toronto! The Sears Mer­chan­dise Build­ing show­cased the demand for loft liv­ing in Toronto. Email or phone 416−388−1960 today if this build­ing inter­ests you.

Peanut Fac­tory Lofts
306 Sackville Street
The Peanut Fac­tory Lofts are a con­verted peanut ware­house and pro­cess­ing plant located in the heart of Cab­bage­town. It was rede­vel­oped in 1988 and now con­tains 9 loft-style units rang­ing in size from 1,400 to 2,000 square feet with 12 foot ceil­ings. One of the ear­lier loft con­ver­sions, The Peanut Fac­tory has had its two bed­room units filled since 1988. These town­house–style lofts exude charm and grace as liv­ing spaces. All of the orig­i­nal maple floors were saved and recon­di­tioned, plus each suite has a real fire­place. With only 9 units this loft con­ver­sion rarely has any units that come on the mar­ket so when they do they go very quickly. Email or phone 416−388−1960 today if this build­ing inter­ests you.

Rich­mond Mews Lofts
287 Rich­mond Street East
A office to loft con­ver­sion located just east of Yonge street on Eglin­ton. The lofts are very bright with mas­sive mul­ti­paned win­dows, 11′ foot ceil­ing heights and very sleek and mod­ern fin­ishes. The Soho has a com­plete fit­ness cen­tre with pro­fes­sional train­ers and rooftop patio. The devel­oper, Bruce Green­berg, took this 1950s office build­ing and added his own flare by adding large mul­ti­paned win­dows as well as hard­wood or con­crete floors. The Soho Lofts houses only 60 suites. Lofts range from around 600 square feet to 1,100 sq ft. The build­ing includes such ameni­ties as a fit­ness room and party room. Email or phone 416−388−1960 today if this build­ing inter­ests you.

Soho Lofts
188 Eglin­ton Avenue East
A office to loft con­ver­sion located just east of Yonge Street on Eglin­ton. The lofts are very bright with mas­sive mul­ti­paned win­dows, 11′ foot ceil­ing heights and very sleek and mod­ern fin­ishes. The Soho Lofts has a com­plete fit­ness cen­tre with pro­fes­sional train­ers and a rooftop patio. Park­ing is avail­able under­ground for a monthly fee. This is a young and pro­fes­sional area with many great restau­rants and shops. One of the only loft con­ver­sions in the area, the prices are rea­son­able but the fees are bru­tally high. Email or phone 416−388−1960 today if this build­ing inter­ests you.

Sumach Lofts
289 Sumach Street
The for­mer Ontario Med­ical Col­lege for Women, most of the orig­i­nal 1890 facade has been main­tained. These lofts on Sumach are located at Ger­rard Street East and Par­lia­ment, in south Cab­bage­town. In the Med­ical Col­lege Lofts (also called the Sumach Lofts), the ceil­ings are very high (up to 15 feet). Lay­outs range from single-storey to multi-storey lofts and sizes range from 800 – 2,000 square feet. Many Med­ical Col­lege Lofts units have pri­vate terrace/decks and some have sky­lights, exposed wood ceil­ings, beams and brick. 289 Sumach Street is a very afford­able loft alter­na­tive in the down­town area. Email or phone 416−388−1960 today if this build­ing inter­ests you.

St. Lawrence Mar­ket Lofts
81A Front Street East
The St. Lawrence Mar­ket Lofts are located right next to the his­toric Saint Lawrence Mar­ket on Front Street. Con­verted from pre-confederation ware­houses built in 1860, lofts in this 4-storey build­ing have on aver­age 10′ ceil­ings, 150-year-old exposed brick walls, exposed wood beam columns and hard­wood floor­ing. Lofts range from 593 square feet to 1,290 square feet. But there is no park­ing at all in this build­ing. Email or phone 416−388−1960 today if this build­ing inter­ests you.

Boiler Fac­tory Lofts
189 Queen Street East
The Boiler Fac­tory Lofts, located on Queen Street East in down­town Toronto, has 11 units. Each loft has a pri­vate ter­race, exposed brick, and post & beam ceil­ings up to 14′ high. Many of the units were cus­tom designed by the pur­chasers them­selves. The Boiler Fac­tory Lofts were devel­oped by HAASTOWN, a loft-only devel­oper who has con­verted other loft projects like the Knit­ting Mill Lofts at 426 Queen East. Email or phone 416−388−1960 today if this build­ing inter­ests you.

Broad­view Lofts
68 Broad­view Avenue
The Broad­view Lofts are the prod­uct of a con­ver­sion of the turn-of-the-century Rex­all drug ware­house. The devel­op­ment con­sists of the orig­i­nal 5 storey ware­house with 2 floors of new loft space addi­tion on top. The Broad­view Lofts con­tain 179 suites in total, and were com­pleted in 2006 by Sor­bara Group (of Brew­ery Lofts fame) with design by Turner Fleis­cher Archi­tects Inc. Lofts range in size from around 800 to 1,600 square feet. Email or phone 416−388−1960 today if this build­ing inter­ests you.

Evening Telegram Lofts
264 Seaton Street
The Evening Telegram Lofts are in what was once home to the Toronto Evening Telegram, a news­pa­per that later became the Toronto Telegram. When The Tely folded in 1971, for­mer staffers founded The Toronto Sun. This hard loft is located in south Cab­bage­town on a lovely stretch of Seaton street. This bou­tique con­verted loft build­ing has 10 units only. Some of the lofts have pri­vate roof ter­races or ground level patios (rare to get out­door space with hard lofts). There are large semi-circular win­dows in some units, but they all have high lofty ceil­ings. There is no onsite park­ing, but per­mits are avail­able for the street. Def­i­nitely worth look­ing at when they come up for sale. Email or phone 416−388−1960 today if this build­ing inter­ests you.

Richard Bigley Lofts
98 Queen Street East
This loft con­ver­sion was orig­i­nally built in 1876 and is named after it’s builder. Over the years, it has seen a vari­ety of indus­trial uses. In 1999, it was con­verted into 3 hard lofts, each on its own floor. The build­ing has a large brick and tile lobby, indoor park­ing, very large win­dows and sig­nif­i­cant archi­tec­tural details. City coun­cil voted it into the Toronto Her­itage Build­ing Inven­tory in June of 1973. The Richard Bigley Lofts are gor­geous and open spaces, though the main­te­nance fees are very high, at more than $700 for each loft, but the spaces are huge. Each loft has pri­vate ele­va­tor access. Email or phone 416−388−1960 today if this build­ing inter­ests you.

One Colum­bus Lofts
1 Colum­bus Avenue
Expe­ri­ence a true fac­tory ambi­ence in this inti­mate live/work ten unit, five storey, for­mer Rawl­ings Base­ball Glove Fac­tory. Com­pleted in 1996 by Jack­son Goad Archi­tects, these hard lofts fea­ture 10-foot ceil­ings, exposed brick walls, pol­ished con­crete floors, rus­tic wood ceil­ings, indus­trial steel beams as well as wood beams. Some lofts have direct ele­va­tor access and also have pri­vate rooftop patios. A mere ten loft units rang­ing from 1,300 square feet to more than 2,400 square feet are housed in this unique build­ing. Located off Sorau­ren Avenue, south of Dun­das Street West, One Colum­bus Avenue is truly an authen­tic loft. Email or phone 416−388−1960 today if this build­ing inter­ests you.

The Church Lofts
111 Robin­son Street
This for­mer church is located in the Trinity-Bellwoods neigh­bour­hood, east of the park, north of Queen Street West. The appeal of this con­ver­sion has got to be the unique struc­ture as well as the great loca­tion. The rarest of church con­ver­sions, the Church Lofts are both large and quite expen­sive. The church was con­verted into only 2 free­hold hard lofts in the mid-1990s, both with huge under­ground park­ing spaces. Fea­tures include soar­ing 25′ ceil­ing, enor­mous win­dows, orig­i­nal hard­wood floors, and pri­vate rooftop decks. With 5,0000+ square feet on mul­ti­ple lev­els, expect to pay in the mil­lions for one of these lofts. Email or phone 416−388−1960 today if this build­ing inter­ests you.

Star­wood Lofts
477 Rich­mond Street West
These Soho Lofts (there are 3 in Toronto, all by the same devel­oper) were orig­i­nally con­structed as an indus­trial / office condo called the Star­wood Cen­tre in the early 1990′s, then went into receiver­ship & sold the remain­ing units as res­i­den­tial spaces. Loft sizes are big, with sizes in the 1,000–2,000 square foot range. Ceil­ings are 11 feet high allow­ing for great floor to ceil­ing win­dows. Nice fin­ishes include gran­ite coun­ters in kitchen & bath­rooms, slid­ing walls and mar­ble show­ers. 477 Rich­mond Street West is some­times called Soho South. This build­ing fea­tures some of the most stun­ning lofts in Toronto. The views are spec­tac­u­lar with extra-high ceil­ings with floor-to-ceiling win­dows. There are five lev­els of under­ground park­ing but it is all rental. Email or phone 416−388−1960 today if this build­ing inter­ests you.

Croft Lofts
8–16 Croft Street
The Croft Lofts is part of a larger build­ing that was con­verted into five free­hold lofts. Prior to the ren­o­va­tion, it housed a Turk­ish rug clean­ing busi­ness that had been in oper­a­tion since the 1920s. Before that, the build­ing was a muni­tions fac­tory dur­ing the First World War. A group of peo­ple (all the end users), pur­chased the ware­house in 1987 with the inten­tion of con­vert­ing it to live/work lofts. The exist­ing build­ing had 10,000 square feet of open space on two floors, with win­dows on all four sides. The struc­tural sys­tem is a com­bi­na­tion of tim­ber and steel beams, and mill-flooring deck­ing through­out. Email or phone 416−388−1960 today if this build­ing inter­ests you.

Welling­ton Lofts
468 Welling­ton Avenue
The pin­na­cle of Toronto loft liv­ing! The old But­t­er­ick Pub­lish­ing Build­ing, built in 1915 and con­verted to lofts in 2001. With only 10 hard lofts in the entire build­ing, 2 to a floor, these are quite exclusve. Pri­vate ele­va­tor access and 5,000 square feet each, with 3 walls of win­dows. The lofts are all done to the nines with 14-foot ceil­ings, wood beams, exposed brick, and all the hard loft good­ies. And they even have pri­vate ele­va­tors. If you to ask how much, then it is too much, gen­er­ally a few mil­lion each. Email or phone 416−388−1960 today if this build­ing inter­ests you.

Malt­house Loft Towns
35–39 Old Brew­ery Lane
The Malt­house Loft Towns is des­ig­nated as her­itage, an Italianate-inspired build­ing designed by Vic­to­rian archi­tects Smith & Gem­mel. The building’s shell is actu­ally an old restored brew­ery built in 1876. The exte­rior fea­tures buff brick pilasters, dec­o­ra­tive cor­ner cor­belling, rounded arches, and oval cast-iron tie-rod plates. It also includes ele­ments such as exposed red and buff brick walls from the orig­i­nal build­ing, and many other one-of-a-kind archi­tec­tural fea­tures from the Vic­to­rian indus­trial era. There are a vari­ety of spa­cious, open con­cept designs avail­able. Each loft town­home includes ver­sa­tile home office/study areas, sound­proof­ing for opti­mal pri­vacy, unique trim fin­ishes, and slid­ing barn doors in bed­rooms (exclud­ing mas­ter bed­room). Email or phone 416−388−1960 today if this build­ing inter­ests you.

Lofts on Fred­er­ick
180 Fred­er­ick Street
Con­verted from a for­mer com­mer­cial build­ing, these “soft­ish” hard lofts are sit­u­ated at King East and Fred­er­ick (east of Jarvis) in Toronto’s tremen­dously desir­able St. Lawrence Mar­ket neigh­bour­hood. A small build­ing, there are only 12 lofts occu­py­ing the top 2 floors of this 4-storey build­ing. Even though it was con­verted in 1998, these lofts are very rarely avail­able. The units fea­ture lofty 11′ con­crete ceil­ings, hard­wood floors, open con­cept kitchens and large win­dows. Park­ing is only avail­able on a rental basis, but the main­te­nace fees are not too high. There is no real out­door space with these lofts, as only one has a ter­race. Email or phone 416−388−1960 today if this build­ing inter­ests you.

Med­land Lofts
245 Med­land and 2924 Dun­das Street West
Med­land Lofts is a con­ver­sion of a 1920s Art Deco style build­ing into ten cre­ative urban liv­ing spaces. Nine of the lofts are two story spaces that face south and west. These lofts all open onto pri­vate, over­sized roof ter­races – per­fect for out­door enter­tain­ing and sum­mer bar­be­ques. One main­floor loft offers street level access and a pri­vate entrance, and is per­fect for some­one seek­ing a live/work space. The Med­land Lofts are located in the cen­tral Toronto neigh­bor­hood of The Junc­tion named “one of the top ten places to invest in Canada” by the Globe and Mail in 2004. Home to artists, gal­leries, small busi­nesses and restu­rants, the neigh­bor­hood enjoys a strong sense of urban com­mu­nity. Email or phone 416−388−1960 today if this build­ing inter­ests you.

SkyLofts at Mys­tic Pointe
200÷250÷300 Man­i­toba Street
The build­ing at 250 & 300 Man­i­toba Street is an orig­i­nal loft con­ver­sion of the MacGui­ness Dis­tillery Plant with two sep­a­rate entrances. This 8 story build­ing has a vari­ety of two storey lofts rang­ing from 1 bed­room to 2 bed­room plus den boast­ing impres­sively high 17′ ceil­ings. 200 Man­i­toba is a newer addi­tion to Mys­tic Pointe, a pur­pose built soft loft with 1 to 2 bed­room plus den suites. Most lofts include jacuzzi tubs, gas fire­places, break­fast bars, her­ring­bone hard­wood floors on the main floor with car­pet on the sec­ond floor. Some lucky suites have a ter­race over­look­ing the build­ings impres­sive roof top gar­den. Email or phone 416−388−1960 today if this build­ing inter­ests you.

Wrigley Lofts
245 Car­law Avenue
Con­verted from an old Wrigley gum fac­tory, it is just north of the Gar­ment Fac­tory Lofts and Print­ing Fac­tory Lofts, across from the i-Zone Lofts. Located in the stu­dio dis­trict part of Leslieville, these true open con­cept loft spaces have 16-foot ceil­ings with con­crete floors and ceil­ings. The Wrigley Lofts are huge open spaces with large fluted columns and ware­house win­dows, these are clas­sic New York-style hard loft spaces. Some have mez­za­nine bed­rooms, with a vari­ety of dif­fer­ent stair­cases. No out­door space with any unit, though, and all of the park­ing is sur­face. One of the only loft build­ings with 1,400 to 1,600 and 2,000 square foot lofts. Email or phone 416−388−1960 today if this build­ing inter­ests you.

Stone­cut­ter Lofts
43 Britain Street
The Stone­cut­ter Lofts were con­verted from a cen­tury old ware­house, located on a quiet side street behind the old Stone­cut­ter Arms pub on Britain Street. They have the usual exposed brick, wood posts and beams and real hard­wood floors. The fin­ishes are all above grade, very high-end fea­tures. Con­verted recently, these lofts fea­ture high ceil­ings, post beam con­struc­tion and large open areas. These raw loft spaces can be quite large with wide liv­ing areas, some with pri­vate ele­va­tor. The fin­ishes are all above grade, very high-end fea­tures. The Stone­cut­ter Lofts offer com­mer­cial, live/work, and res­i­den­tial units. Email or phone 416−388−1960 today if this build­ing inter­ests you.

Queen City Vine­gar Co. Lofts
19 River Street
The Queen City Vine­gar Co. Lofts is an authen­tic loft con­ver­sion of an over 100-year-old ware­house into 38 new and vin­tage lofts. The build­ing was owned by the Queen City Vine­gar Com­pany and is located on River Street, in the always trendy Cork­town area off Queen East. Queen City Vine­gar Com­pany Lofts is a new loft con­ver­sion build­ing by Street­car Devel­op­ments. Built as a ware­house for Queen City Vine­gar in 1908, the three-storey build­ing had two new storeys added above in a new-construction glass addi­tion. Email or phone 416−388−1960 today if this build­ing inter­ests you.

Print­ing Fac­tory Lofts
201 Car­law Avenue
The Print­ing Fac­tory Lofts is a rare incar­na­tion of indus­trial eras past. Rolph Clarke Stone orig­i­nally com­mis­sioned the build­ing, which opened in 1913, to house his print­ing presses. Located at 201 Car­law, it’s a huge prop­erty in Leslieville, which was at the heart of indus­try in Toronto at the turn of the 20^th cen­tury. The Print­ing Fac­tory Lofts give you the choice of how you want to live and what you need to be com­fort­able. The 254 lofts offer ceil­ings that soar up to 24 fee, exposed con­crete or painted steel columns,exposed con­crete or painted steel columns, exposed con­crete ceil­ings and exposed metal duct­work. Email or phone 416−388−1960 today if this build­ing inter­ests you.

Gar­ment Fac­tory Lofts
233 Car­law Avenue
Recent on the scene in Toronto’s hip down­town east is Gar­ment Fac­tory Lofts – Atria Devel­op­ments’ live/work indus­trial loft con­ver­sion that has won rave reviews. These lofts appeal to first-time buy­ers, empty nesters, cre­ative indi­vid­u­als and busi­ness pro­fes­sion­als seek­ing a live/work loft envi­ron­ment. Atria coverted a for­mer gar­ment fac­tory in the Queen Street East neigh­bour­hood into one of the city’s hottest loft con­ver­sions. The Gar­ment Fac­tory Lofts fea­tures 154 lofts com­prised of stu­dios, one-bedroom, one-bedroom plus den/workspace, two-bedroom, and two-bedroom plus den/workspace, plus pent­houses with views of the lake. Email or phone 416−388−1960 today if this build­ing inter­ests you.

The School­house Lofts
391 Brunswick Avenue
The School­house Lofts is an inti­mate, boutique-style loft res­i­dence in a sought-after loca­tion within an estab­lished res­i­den­tial com­mu­nity sur­rounded by mature trees. The prop­erty, which was vacant for years, was built in the early 1950s and now houses only 19 exclu­sive lofts. Con­verted from a Catholic school­house, this art deco inspired loft build­ing is one of the hottest prop­er­ties in the cov­eted Annex neigh­bour­hood. The lofts range in size from 1,032 to 2,092 square feet – all with spa­cious ter­races or bal­conies over­look­ing the quiet res­i­den­tial street on which it is located, The School­house Lofts are close to every­thing that makes the Annex hip. Email or phone 416−388−1960 today if this build­ing inter­ests you.

The Loretto Lofts
385 Brunswick Avenue
Located in the Annex and orig­i­nally designed by archi­tect Neil G. Beggs, the Loretto was com­pleted in 1914. The her­itage des­ig­nated struc­ture incor­po­rates numer­ous Beaux-Arts Design prin­ci­pals pop­u­lar at the time. The exist­ing build­ing was main­tained and restored in keep­ing with its his­toric rel­e­vance and beauty. The over­all com­plex is cen­tred on an inte­rior land­scaped court­yard and ameni­ties pavil­ion with most lofts and town­homes includ­ing pri­vate ter­races and bal­conies. Com­pleted in 2007 by Con­text Devel­op­ments, this is one of the few lofts in The Annex. Next door to the School­house Lofts at 391 Brunswick, these are the only loft build­ings in the area. There are a few scat­tered around Dupont and Dav­en­port – but this is one part of Toronto that every­one wants a loft in, but that has very lim­ited sup­ply. Email or phone 416−388−1960 today if this build­ing inter­ests you.

Mod­ern Beach Lofts
952 Kingston Road
952 Kingston is a unique 24 unit build­ing which marks the first loft con­ver­sion project in this area of the city. This prop­erty is steep with his­tory begin­ning life as a movie the­atre in the early 1940′s. When you look at the upper level of the build­ing you can see the Art Deco influ­ences in stone details and lin­ear motifs. The res­i­den­tial entrance of the build­ing recalls the sense of the orig­i­nal the­atre grand entrance. Upper lev­els house dis­tinc­tive curves, glass facades and ter­races. The con­ver­sion of the 1940 movie the­atre into the Mod­ern Beach Lofts will be a land­mark in the upscale north beach neigh­bour­hood. Stain­less steel appli­ances, 10-foot ceil­ings and pol­ished con­crete floors are some of the many fea­tures that 952 Kingston has to offer. Email or phone 416−388−1960 today if this build­ing inter­ests you.

Print­ers Row
525 Logan Avenue
The Print­ers Row Lofts is a con­ver­sion of a vin­tage archi­tec­tural gem in Riverdale. One of the few loft con­ver­sions in the area, Print­ers Row was orig­i­nally designed by the archi­tect W.F. Carmichael in 1911 for the Bell Tele­phone Com­pany world head­quar­ters – and most recently used in the print­ing trade as ABSO Blue­prints. The present loft con­ver­sion cre­ated a row of six dou­ble stacked two and three storey loft spaces, all fac­ing south and all open­ing out into pri­vate roof gar­dens or ter­races. Retained fea­tures of the mas­sively overde­signed orig­i­nal struc­ture include 18″ thick ter­ra­cotta and con­crete floors acousti­cally sep­a­rat­ing each loft. Email or phone 416−388−1960 today if this build­ing inter­ests you.

Prescott Stu­dios
121 Prescott Avenue
Also known as the Stu­dio One Lofts, this loft con­ver­sion (orig­i­naly a tan­nery and more recently a school) in Lit­tle Por­tu­gal is one of Toronto’s best hard loft deals. Large spaces for not too much money is always a good thing. The Prescott Stu­dio lofts have exposed brick, spec­tac­u­lar dis­tressed wood pil­lars and beams, sus­pended heat­ing and gor­geous hard­wood floors through­out. Some have amaz­ing open con­cept spi­ral stair­cases up through the 11-foot ceil­ings to rooftop decks. Email or phone 416−388−1960 today if this build­ing inter­ests you.

Wal­lace Sta­tion Lofts
371 Wal­lace Avenue
Located near Dun­das and Bloor, Wal­lace Sta­tion Lofts con­sists of a four-storey ware­house, built in 1929 for the Cana­dian Glue Stamp Fac­tory, and a coach house from 1949. Each of the lofts within the restored build­ings has a dif­fer­ent design. Fin­ishes have included burnt cop­per back­splashes, and floors made of var­i­ous kinds and shades of old wood. The indus­trial red brick, art deco-style façade of the main Wal­lace Sta­tion Lofts struc­ture has been pre­served. Fea­tures include the orig­i­nal freight ele­va­tor, work­ing sprin­kler sys­tem, and two-foot-thick beams of Dou­glas fir held together with cast-iron fit­tings. Email or phone 416−388−1960 today if this build­ing inter­ests you.

The Foundry Lofts
1100 Lans­downe Avenue
In the early 1900s, Canada Foundry Co. Ltd. built and sup­plied loco­mo­tives for rail­ways across Canada. The Foundry Lofts pre­serve the rich his­tory of this com­pany and the Great Cana­dian Rail­way, keep­ing it alive with the restora­tion and con­ver­sion of the ware­house into 104 hard lofts in Toronto. These lofts in Toronto are a rare find. Incor­po­rat­ing orig­i­nal exposed brick walls and large warehouse-style win­dows, the Foundry Lofts are the real deal. Some lofts offer out­door patios and most lofts fea­ture win­dows look­ing into the atrium in addi­tion to orig­i­nal warehouse-style win­dows look­ing over the city. Email or phone 416−388−1960 today if this build­ing inter­ests you.

Tribeca Lofts
797 Don Mills Road
Tribeca Lofts is a trendy devel­op­ment at 797 Don Mills Road on the cor­ner of Eglin­ton Avenue – across from the Ontario Sci­ence Cen­tre. In a for­mer life, it was the Mony Life office build­ing. The 17-storey Mony office build­ing became vacant in the early 1990s and was pur­chased by a devel­oper for con­ver­sion into 180 res­i­den­tial con­do­minium loft units. T.W.S. Devel­op­ments Inc. mar­keted the project as Tribeca Lofts on the Upper East Side. The high ceil­ings are left over from the pre­vi­ous use, but 10-feet makes the lofts seem big and airy. Large lofts for low prices is the norm here, one of the best loft con­ver­sion deals in Toronto. Email or phone 416−388−1960 today if this build­ing inter­ests you.

Mac­donell Lofts
243 Mac­donell Avenue
This rel­a­tively small ware­house build­ing located in Ron­ces­valles Vil­lage was con­verted into six hard lofts. It is one of ear­li­est loft con­ver­sions in Toronto and was com­pleted prob­a­bly around 1986. Orig­i­nally, all of the units were heated by elec­tric base­boards, but by now many have been ren­o­vated and are heated by gas. The sizes of these authen­tic hard lofts vary, and some of the units have rooftop ter­races. They rarely become avail­able so keep your fin­gers crossed. Email or phone 416−388−1960 today if this build­ing inter­ests you.

Cole­man Lofts
99 Cole­man Avenue
This small bou­tique ware­house con­ver­sion is hid­den away just north of the Dan­forth. One of the best kept secrets of the Toronto loft mar­ket, this is a ware­house that was con­verted into only 16 hard lofts. It is one of Toronto’s older loft con­ver­sions and was likely com­pleted some­time in the 1990s. These units gen­er­ally have 2 lev­els and most come with fire­places. A rar­ity in con­verted lofts, many also have bal­conies or ter­races. This is a very rare build­ing with units com­ing up maybe once a year, but they are truly stun­ning and often go for over list price. Email or phone 416−388−1960 today if this build­ing inter­ests you.

Sword Lofts
10 Sword Street
The cozy Sword Lofts houses eleven con­verted lofts with under­ground park­ing. Twelve foot ceil­ings grace these lofts which range from 725 square feet to a spa­cious 1,800 square feet. There are only 8 indoor park­ing spots, but this build­ing makes up in charm any­thing it may be lack­ing. One of the only lofts in the Cab­bage­town South Her­itage Con­ser­va­tion Dis­trict, 10 Sword was com­pleted by Peachtree Prop­er­ties in 1997. Tra­di­tional loft styling abounds with con­crete columns and con­crete ceil­ings. Enjoy addi­tional loft style fea­tures with hard­wood floors and fire­places for a true ware­house feel. Patios and decks are avail­able for some suites, other suites may share out­door space. Email or phone 416−388−1960 today if this build­ing inter­ests you.

The Church Lofts
701 Dover­court Road
The Church Lofts is a new devel­op­ment that just com­pleted con­ver­sion in early 2010. This authen­tic hard loft church con­ver­sion cre­ated only 28 con­tem­po­ra­try her­itage lofts, each one as unique as the next. Church Loft fea­tures include orig­i­nal stained glass win­dows, orig­i­nal brick, steel trusses, cor­nice mould­ings and vaulted ceil­ings up to 17 feet. The units are one and two-storey authen­tic lofts rang­ing in size from 614 to 1,484 square feet. Mod­ern inte­ri­ors will com­prise of euro­pean kitchens with stain­less steel appli­ances, hard­wood floors and con­tem­po­rary fix­tures. Bal­conies, ter­races and rooftop decks are offered with some lofts and there are 23 park­ing spaces avail­able. Email or phone 416−388−1960 today if this build­ing inter­ests you.

Clare­mont Lofts
62 Clare­mont Street
The Clare­mont Lofts are one of those rare jaw-dropping loft cov­er­sions. A for­mer ban­quet hall (Casa Do Ben­fica), these lofts were con­verted in 1999. Right in the heart of the Queen West Vil­lage, these 2 and 3-level lofts are like noth­ing else. Ceil­ings range up to 24 feet in the 2 and 3 bed­room units, some with libraries. They have pri­vate garages with their own entrances and there is even a sep­a­rate guest suite. The Clare­mont Lofts are large, around 2,100–2,200 square feet each. They are not your stan­dard hard loft con­ver­sion, as there is no brick or con­crete or wood. But they have hard­wood floors, sky­lights and rooftop ter­races with around 700 square feet of out­door space. With only 8 units, these come up very rarely and are priced out of many people’s reach. Email or phone 416−388−1960 today if this build­ing inter­ests you.

Cork­town Lofts
21 River Street
Once a slum for immi­grant work­ers, Cork­town is truly com­ing into its own. With the revi­tal­iza­tion of Queen Street East ramp­ing up ever faster, this area is one to keep your eye on. The Cork­town Lofts were devel­oped by Plaza­corp (of Choco­late Com­pany Lofts fame) and was com­pleted in 1997 with only eight hard loft units. The Cork­town Lofts have rather gen­er­ous suites with 1,400 square-foot lofts being the norm, which makes them the right choice for a lot of east-end urban­ites. The only issue is that the condo fees are quite high, even with no ameni­ties. Prices are not too bad, for the size. Email or phone 416−388−1960 today if this build­ing inter­ests you.

Clare­mont Hall Lofts
34 Clare­mont Street
Right next door to the uber-exclusive 3-unit Church Lofts (not to be con­fused with the new The Church Lofts project on Dover­court) and just down the street from the Clare­mont Lofts at 62 Clare­mont, this bou­tique loft con­ver­sion was carved out of church hall. Orig­i­nally con­structed in 1950 as a sec­u­lar exten­sion to the St. Cyril and Method­ius Roman Catholic Epis­co­pal Church, this very solid masonry struc­ture was con­verted into 13 hard lofts in 1995. The adjoin­ing Church and manse were sev­ered and devel­oped as three addi­tional and very large authen­tic loft spaces. Yet another amaz­ing loft con­ver­sion by Bob Mitchell. Email or phone 416−388−1960 today if this build­ing inter­ests you.

Euclid Lofts
257 Euclid Avenue
Five con­tem­po­rary lofts con­verted from what may have been some sort of church in 2003/2004 and rang­ing in size from 1,516 to 2,617 square feet. The lofts fea­ture hard­wood floor­ing, gas fire­places, stain­less steel coun­ter­tops and 12.5 feet ceil­ings. The build­ing was pre­vi­ously used by the Assem­blies of the First Born Church, who some accuse of being a cult. Just south of the Movie House Lofts at 394 Euclid, it is one of few loft con­ve­ri­ons in the Lit­tle Italy or Annex area. Email or phone 416−388−1960 today if this build­ing inter­ests you.

Net­work Lofts
2 Field­way Road
The Net­work Lofts started life in 1971 as a Bell Canada office and was reborn as a loft con­ver­sion. It was built orig­i­nally for hun­dreds of employ­ees and vis­i­tors, and included many ele­va­tors, a park­ing garage, as well as indus­trial heat­ing, ven­ti­la­tion and air-conditioning sys­tems. While the char­ac­ter of the struc­ture was main­tained – from its orig­i­nal thick, industry-standard floors to columns with a radius of nearly 30 inches – it was mod­ern­ized inside and out. The Net­work Lofts range in size from one bed­room to two bed­rooms and a den. Ceil­ings are 10½ feet in stan­dard units and up to 17 feet in two-storey suites on the 8^th floor where the building’s mechan­i­cal room was orig­i­nally located. Email or phone 416−388−1960 today if this build­ing inter­ests you.

Eight Welles­ley Lofts
8 Welles­ley Street
In the present mar­ket, there just aren’t enough authen­tic lofts to choose from. But there are build­ings that offer alter­na­tives – with ceil­ings that are 9 or 10+ feet high, larger win­dows, semi-open con­cept lay­outs, hard­wood floors, etc. Com­pleted in 1997, this con­verted office build­ing is one of downtown’s hid­den gems. With huge suites and high ceil­ings, you would not believe the price per square foot. Sec­ond floor units have mas­sive ter­races with 300–400 square feet of out­door space. One of only a hand­ful of con­verted office build­ings, Eight Welles­ley Lofts joins West­side Lofts, the three Soho Lofts and Tribeca Lofts. The roof gar­den has amaz­ing views of the city and the loca­tion could not be bet­ter with the TTC lit­er­ally next door. Eas­ily one of the best priced loft build­ings in all of Toronto. Email or phone 416−388−1960 today if this build­ing inter­ests you.

St. John’s Place Lofts
1 St. Johns Road
Spec­tac­u­lar open con­cept lofts make these High Park Loft feel like a house, with all the con­ve­niences of loft liv­ing! Con­ve­niently located in a quiet & inti­mate 15-unit build­ing con­verted from an office, set among res­i­den­tial homes in the pres­ti­gious High Park neigh­bour­hood. Its streets are lined with tow­er­ing oaks, reflect­ing its prox­im­ity to one of Toronto’s largest and most pop­u­lar parks. This in-demand loca­tion is within walk­ing dis­tance of The Junc­tion, a revi­tal­ized shop­ping dis­trict con­tain­ing a huge vari­ety of retail shops and restau­rants west of Keele Street along Dun­das St. W. Bloor West Vil­lage, a pop­u­lar shop­ping dis­trict known for its Euro­pean cafes, bak­eries and spe­cialty food shops, is also within walk­ing dis­tance. Walk to High Park or bus to Dun­das West sub­way sta­tions or drive five min­utes to Lake Shore Boule­vard and the Gar­diner. Email or phone 416−388−1960 today if this build­ing inter­ests you.

Vic­to­ria Lofts
152 Annette Street
A true west Toronto land­mark, the church is located on Annette Street at Med­land Street in the res­i­den­tial neigh­bour­hood of High Park. Vic­to­ria Lofts is close to shops, great restau­rants, schools and a library, within walk­ing dis­tance of High Park, the Bloor sub­way line and the Bloor West shop­ping dis­trict. The trans­for­ma­tion will pre­serve and main­tain the integrity of this ele­gant build­ing. The soar­ing ceil­ings and orig­i­nal archi­tec­tural detail­ing will com­bine with con­tem­po­rary design to cre­ate these one-of-a-kind loft res­i­dences. Res­i­dences are one and two sto­ries, rang­ing from approx­i­mately 600 to 1,800 square feet. Email or phone 416−388−1960 today if this build­ing inter­ests you.

Wal­dorf Asto­ria
80 & 88 Charles Street
Located on Charles Street, between Church and Jarvis, these for­mer hotels were con­verted into con­dos in the mid 1990′s, yet keep their New York City feel­ing. Steps to Yonge and Bloor, sub­ways, shop­ping, and Yorkville, these build­ings rep­re­sent excel­lent value for laca­tion and size. These beau­ti­ful build­ings are approx­i­mately 100 years old and were once The Wal­dorf Asto­ria Hotel before it was con­verted into an ele­gant and very cozy con­do­minium. The condo build­ing itself had just been ren­o­vated from top to bot­tom. While not lofts in the strictest sense of the word, these are com­mer­cial build­ings con­verted to res­i­den­tial use. Email or phone 416−388−1960 today if this build­ing inter­ests you.

Carl­ton Lofts
185 Carl­ton Street
The Carl­ton Lofts were con­verted from a beau­ti­ful old man­sion, the William Jamieson House, built some­time around 1865, now des­ig­nated a his­tor­i­cal prop­erty. With com­mer­cial space in the base­ment and on the main floor, the top of the home was divided in 1988 into only 4 very spe­cial and unique lofts. All with rooftop ter­races over­look­ing the beau­ti­ful tree-lined streets of old Cab­bage­town, they are a spe­cial treat. They are on two lev­els, some with exposed wooden rafters. With so few lofts in it, this is one of the more exclu­sive loft res­i­dences in Toronto. Email or phone 416−388−1960 today if this build­ing inter­ests you.

Wood­lawn Church Lofts
11 Wood­lawn Avenue West
One of only a hand­ful of church lofts in Toronto, these lofts are housed in a rare and hid­den upscale con­verted church on the fringes of Rosedale, near Yonge and St. Clair. With only 6 hard lofts in the build­ing, they tend to be quite large and range from 1,840 to 2,341 square feet. There are 2 spec­tac­u­lar pent­houses with pri­vate ele­va­tors and all of the lofts fea­ture hard­wood floors, cathe­dral ceil­ings, gas fire­places, 3 bath­rooms per suite, under­ground park­ing, lock­ers and ter­races. With prices approach­ing $1 mil­lion, these lofts are not in everyone’s bud­get. Email or phone 416−388−1960 today if this build­ing inter­ests you.

Graphic Arts Build­ing
73 Rich­mond Street West
The Graphic Arts Build­ing at 73 Rich­mond Street West is a his­tor­i­cal build­ing in the heart of down­town Toronto. A 5-storey loft con­ver­sion, the Graphic Arts Lofts are ide­ally sit­u­ated in the down­town core in the Finan­cial Dis­trict, near the Fash­ion Dis­trict and bustling Yonge Street. Also within walk­ing dis­tance to Chi­na­town and Kens­ing­ton Mar­ket, this build­ing offers a choice of 65 lofts all zoned for work and live. The lofts are airy with ceil­ing heights of 11−1÷2 to 13−1÷2 feet. Pent­house lofts offer ter­races. Unforut­nately, there are no ameni­ties and no park­ing avail­able. Email or phone 416−388−1960 today if this build­ing inter­ests you.

957 Broad­view Lofts
957 Broad­view Avenue
This is a mixed office/residential build­ing on Broad­view just north of the Dan­forth. Claimed to be a con­ver­sion, I can­not find out what it once was, though it seems to have been done pre­vi­ous to 1984. The lofts are townhouse-style with multi-levels, have roof ter­races and range in size from 1,200 up to 1,500 square feet and have from one to three bed­rooms. This is a mixed office/residential build­ing on Broad­view just north of the Dan­forth. Claimed to be a con­ver­sion, I can­not find out what it once was, though it seems to have been done pre­vi­ous to 1984. The lofts are townhouse-style with multi-levels, have roof ter­races and range in size from 1,200 up to 1,500 square feet and have from one to three bed­rooms. The front of the build­ing con­tains main floor commercial/office space. Each has a sep­a­rate and pri­vate garage. Email or phone 416−388−1960 today if this build­ing inter­ests you.

Upper Beaches Lofts
214 Main Street
Con­verted around 2006, the Upper Beaches Lofts started out as a fish mar­ket, then became a ban­quet hall and finally ended up being con­verted into 16 lofts. Located on Main Street, at Ger­rard, these lofts range in size from 795 to 1,268 square feet and offer one or two bed­room designs. There are only two floors and each loft has two lev­els, with ten dif­fer­ent lay­outs in all. The Upper Beaches Lofts offer some under­ground and some sur­face park­ing and each has hard­wood floors and a gas fire­place. Email or phone 416−388−1960 today if this build­ing inter­ests you.

Carhartt Lofts
535 Queen Street East
The Carhartt Lofts – at 535 Queen Street East – are con­verted from an orig­i­nal Cork­town jeans fac­tory. This small bou­tique build­ing houses only 11 live/work units. Fea­tures clas­sic loft char­ac­ter­is­tics such as post and beam con­struc­tion details, exposed brick, con­crete and wood floors, large win­dows and 12 feet ceil­ings. The Carhartt Lofts are large, around 1,500 square feet each. One of the 3 base­ment units still fea­tures orig­i­nal fac­tory details such as ramps and stairs, with the kitchen built on the con­crete stand where one of the jean presses used to be. Email or phone 416−388−1960 today if this build­ing inter­ests you.

Nurs­ing Lofts
33 Price Street
Located near Yonge and Sum­mer­hill the Nurs­ing Lofts were con­verted from the Ontario Nurs­ing Asso­ci­a­tion Res­i­dences. Con­verted around 1995, there are 17 lovely open con­cept lofts rang­ing from 470 to 1,458 square feet in con­fig­u­ra­tions from stu­dio to two bed­rooms + den. As one would expect from the loca­tion, these authen­tic lofts fea­ture above aver­age fin­ishes such as lime­stone floors, french dou­ble door open­ings to juli­ette bal­conies and the beau­ti­ful Geor­gian facade. The Nurs­ing Lofts are adja­cent to the Toronto Lawn and Ten­nis Club, just a block from Yonge Street. Email or phone 416−388−1960 today if this build­ing inter­ests you.

High Park Garage Lofts
119 and 121 Fer­managh Avenue
The High Park Garage Lofts is a con­ver­sion of a cen­tury old build­ing into only 3 free­hold townhouse-style lofts. These authen­tic lofts fea­ture exposed brick, steel beams, out­door decks, heated floors and sky­lights. They are bright and spa­cious. The High Park Garage Lofts are tucked away on Fer­managh Avenue, off Ron­ces­valles, east of High Park. For sale since 1992, the garage was finally con­verted around 2004 and the only MLS sale is from that year and was for $720,000. Expect to pay a fair bit more today! Email or phone 416−388−1960 today if this build­ing inter­ests you.

Le Corbu Lofts
194 Mer­ton Street
194 Mer­ton is Le Corbu – an inti­mate art-deco inspired 34 unit com­plex of con­verted lofts in Mid­town Toronto. Spa­cious open con­cept liv­ing with 10 foot ceil­ings. Some of the lofts have fire­place. The Le Corbu Lofts offer an exer­cise room, lock­ers, park­ing. Prac­ti­cal wood lam­i­nate floor­ing warms these cen­trally located lofts. Up-to-date kitchens fea­ture stain­less steel appli­ances in this inti­mate loft build­ing. The ceil­ings are high, as one would expect, and floor plans are gen­er­ous. The Le Corbu office con­ver­sion lofts boast a com­mon rooftop deck with bar­be­cue facil­i­ties. Take advan­tage of the fit­ness room and other shared facil­i­ties and get to know your neigh­bors. Park­ing and stor­age lock­ers are avail­able. Email or phone 416−388−1960 today if this build­ing inter­ests you.

Pow­ell Man­sion Lofts
212 St. George Street
His­toric Pow­ell Man­sion was built in 1907 and coverted to lofts around 1986. Units range from stu­dios to 2-bedrooms with sizes rang­ing from under 700 square feet to over 1,000 square feet with ter­races up to 600 square feet! Thought con­tained within a 100-year-old man­sion, the units them­selves are essen­tially con­dos, with dry­wall and some mod­ern fea­tures. Some have been updated, oth­ers are more dated and in need of some work. It is too bad that more of the orig­i­nal char­ac­ter could not be retained. The lobby is stun­ning though, like walk­ing back 100 years when you enter. Email or phone 416−388−1960 today if this build­ing inter­ests you.

Sloane Square Lofts
217 St. George Street
217 St. George Street and the three his­toric houses across the street typ­ify the sin­gle fam­ily houses that once lined the grand streets of the Annex. The Annex, known as one of the City’s first “sub­ur­ban” neigh­bour­hoods, retains many of its his­toric houses, typ­i­cally now home to pro­fes­sors, writ­ers, and uni­ver­sity stu­dents. Around 1996, the his­toric houses at 217 St. George have gone through a con­ver­sion to lofts by Urban Corp. Many units are on 2 lev­els, though some are sin­gle. Unfor­tu­nately, there are very few units in the orig­i­nal home, most are in the new part. The lofts range from around 500 square feet to over 1,500 square feet. Some have bal­conies, some have ter­races and most have park­ing. Email or phone 416−388−1960 today if this build­ing inter­ests you.

Lennox Mews Lofts
228−230−234 St. George Street
The three his­toric houses at 228, 230 and 234 St. George typ­ify the sin­gle fam­ily houses that once lined the grand streets of the Annex. The Annex, known as one of the City’s first “sub­ur­ban” neigh­bour­hoods, retains many of its his­toric houses, typ­i­cally now home to pro­fes­sors, writ­ers, and uni­ver­sity stu­dents. Around 1996, the his­toric houses at 217 and 230 have gone through a con­ver­sion to con­do­minium hous­ing units by Urban Corp. In the 1997 con­ver­sion project at 230 St. George, the devel­oper links the three his­toric houses together with a new multi-housing unit to the rear to make one hous­ing com­plex. Com­pleted in 1996, the con­do­minium com­plex retains the dis­tinct appear­ance of the three orig­i­nal houses. The build­ing at the south, 228 St. George, was designed in 1901 by Arts and Crafts archi­tect, Eden Smith (1858–1949). Orig­i­nally from Eng­land, Smith estab­lished an archi­tec­tural prac­tice in Toronto and went on to design over 2,000 houses in the city, the best known of which are in the his­toric dis­trict of Wych­wood Park. At num­ber 230, in the mid­dle of the trio of houses, stands a house designed in 1909 by local archi­tects, Edwards and Saun­ders. At the north, 234 St. George was con­structed in 1903 as the home for Robert Wat­son, who com­mis­sioned one of Toronto’s most influ­en­tial archi­tects, E.J. Lennox (1855–1933), for the design. Lennox was archi­tect of the west wing of the provin­cial Leg­isla­tive Assem­bly build­ing at Queen’s Park, the sim­i­larly styled Old City Hall (Queen and Bay streets), and Casa Loma (1910) at the top of Spad­ina Avenue. Email or phone 416−388−1960 today if this build­ing inter­ests you.

323 Queen Lofts
323 Queen Street East
Located in Toronto’s trendy Queen & Berke­ley area, this build­ing was fully ren­o­vated in 2004 in a very taste­ful style. It fea­tures 3 lux­ury lofts, 2 with entrances off funky Berke­ley Street. The lofts fea­ture full birch kitchens, stain­less steel/black appli­ances, washer/dryers, exposed brick, cherry floors and high ceil­ings. The lofts are com­posed of a 2 bed­room / 2 bath­room unit with 1,150 square feet, a 1 bed­room with 825 square feet and another 1 bed­room with 700 square feet. Rental park­ing is avail­able and street park­ing is abun­dant. Email or phone 416−388−1960 today if this build­ing inter­ests you.

Steam Plant Lofts
10 Welles­ley Place
The Steam Plant Lofts is a con­ver­sion of a 1953 Welles­ley Hos­pi­tal power plant into a 29-suite loft con­ver­sion. The 61 meter (200 foot) high smoke­stack has been cleaned out allow­ing for 3 suites to have round bed­rooms or dens with exposed brick – which all sold on open­ing day. Sure to be a con­ver­sa­tion starter! The lofts are located in the Bloor/Jarvis cor­ri­dor, a rapidly chang­ing area under­go­ing revi­tal­iza­tion. The Steam Plant Lofts range from 455 square feet up to 1,092 square feet with roof top ter­races, high ceil­ings, hard­wood floor­ing, large slid­ing barn doors, indus­trial style show­er­heads and stain­less steel appli­ances. Ameni­ties include a roof top ter­race for BBQs and a party room to enter­tain friends. Email or phone 416−388−1960 today if this build­ing inter­ests you.

SoHo Bayview Lofts
562 Eglin­ton Avenue East
The third of the trio of SoHo Lofts in Toronto. Just east of the its sis­ter build­ing at 188 Eglin­ton East, this is another con­verted office build­ing. More of a low-rise, with only four floors and 40 units, these lofts are a lit­tle more exclu­sive. Most peo­ple don’t even know it exists, never mind the fact that it is one of only a few loft con­ver­sions in the Yonge and Eglin­ton area. Email or phone 416−388−1960 today if this build­ing inter­ests you.

For­est Hill Lofts
1001 Roselawn Avenue
The For­est Hill Lofts is a mag­nif­i­cent four-storey, L-shaped edi­fice that was built in 1932 and was the Cana­dian head­quar­ters of Coats & Paton, a tex­tile firm famous for its Bee­hive brand thread. Suites at For­est Hill Lots range in size up to 1,108 square feet and include one, two, and two-bedroom-plus-den lay­outs. Some lofts offer Juliet bal­conies, ground-floor exclusive-use patio ter­races, or bal­conies with walk­out from liv­ing room and mas­ter bed­room. As well, pri­vate rooftop ter­races offer mag­nif­i­cent city views, unob­structed in all direc­tions, with spec­tac­u­lar sight­lines of the CN Tower and the down­town sky­line. Email or phone 416−388−1960 today if this build­ing inter­ests you.

Indus­trial Rev­o­lu­tion II Lofts
670 Rich­mond Street West
The Indus­trial Rev­o­lu­tion II Lofts are a bou­tique down­town loft con­ver­sion with low condo fees and a desir­able funky loca­tion. These are some of the rea­sons the lofts sell fast in Indus­trial Rev­o­lu­tion II. The sec­ond phase of Bob Mitchell’s loft con­ver­sion of the knit­ting mill at 676 Rich­mond, this loft was com­pleted in 1997, carved from a for­mer Decca Records Ware­house. There are only 12 suites in this build­ing and all the lofts are multi-storey and range in size from 700 to 2,000 square feet. Email or phone 416−388−1960 today if this build­ing inter­ests you.

Domin­ion Felt Works Lofts
41 Shanly Street
Located in the west end of Toronto, 41 Shanly Street was an exist­ing felt man­u­fac­tur­ing indus­trial build­ing, embed­ded in a sin­gle fam­ily res­i­den­tial neigh­bour­hood. Around 1983 it was con­verted and extended into 10 multi-level loft res­i­dences, with indoor park­ing and fea­tures such as pri­vate roof ter­races and fire­places included as a stan­dard. Toronto’s orig­i­nal loft con­ver­sion, 41 Shanly offers suits rang­ing in size from 800 to 1,800 square feet, and is located just north of Bloor and Dover­court. Each loft fea­tures a fire­place and pri­vate roof top ter­race. Other fea­tures include exposed brick, 12′-30′ ceil­ings, atrium win­dows and sky­lights, pri­vate garage, and low main­te­nance fees. Email or phone 416−388−1960 today if this build­ing inter­ests you.

Tan­nery Lofts
736 Dun­das Street East
The Tan­nery Lofts is a hard-loft con­ver­sion of a hundred-year-old build­ing that was for­merly used for indus­trial pur­poses. In the early years, this was a soap fac­tory, and it was later used for man­u­fac­ture and stor­age by the Adam Beck Cigar Box Man­u­fac­tur­ing Com­pany. The Tan­nery Lofts is located at 736 Dun­das Street East, just east of River Street near the Don Val­ley Park­way. These units are located in the old four-storey struc­ture, built in 1905, and have the orig­i­nal 13-foot wood ceil­ings, brick walls and exposed posts and beams. Blend­ing in with the old build­ing is a new three-storey addi­tion with a brick facade and warehouse-style win­dows. Email or phone 416−388−1960 today if this build­ing inter­ests you.

QB Lofts
692 Queen Street East
All of the QB Loft designs are unique, inno­v­a­tive, and mod­ern. Each loft was designed as a func­tional live and/or work space. The lofts have lay­outs with 1 or 2 bed­rooms, sizes up to 2,000 square feet and one or two level designs. Some come with park­ing, all have low main­te­nance fees and no out­door space. The QB Lofts are located just min­utes from down­town at the inter­sec­tion of two major street­car routes. The lofts are also a short dis­tance away from both the Yonge-University-Spadina and Bloor-Danforth sub­way lines. Email or phone 416−388−1960 today if this build­ing inter­ests you.

Scar­boro Beach Lofts
35–37 Scar­boro Beach Boule­vard
This restored home in the Beaches is split into four lofts, with each res­i­dent own­ing a quar­ter of the title to the entire prop­erty. Approval from other own­ers is required, as in a co-operative arrange­ment. As far as I know, this is the only co-ownership loft in all of Toronto. Units range up to 1,837 square feet and are only about 100 feet from the board­walk along the lake. These lofts are either a sin­gle level on the ground floor or multi-level on the top two floors. The upper units have up to eight sky­lights in a cathe­dral ceil­ing that runs the length of the main liv­ing space, which includes the kitchen, and the liv­ing and din­ing areas. Email or phone 416−388−1960 today if this build­ing inter­ests you.

Bleecker Street Lofts
50 Bleecker Street
These unique urban lofts are utterly ideal for peo­ple who crave cre­ative space. A vin­tage loft build­ing has been gra­ciously con­verted into only four truly amaz­ing and huge liv­ing spaces. Spread over 2 floors, there’s end­less room for col­lec­tors, artists, musi­cians or for those who like to enter­tain in style. Rare is a space of such expanse, in the cen­tre of the city. Imag­ine life in a space that suits your needs, with room to wan­der, cre­ate, imag­ine or just pon­der. The vin­tage loft at 50 Bleecker Street retains many of its orig­i­nal charms – from diag­o­nal hard­wood and exposed brick, to excep­tional 10 and 11 foot ceil­ings. A short stroll away is bustling Cab­bage­town with its gourmet stores, weekly farmer’s mar­ket and beau­ti­ful neigh­bour­hoods. Email or phone 416−388−1960 today if this build­ing inter­ests you.

Macpher­son Church Lofts
12 Macpher­son Street
In the heart of the Toronto’s Sum­mer­hill com­mu­nity, this century-old, for­mer Bap­tist church on Macpher­son Avenue is revered by the hand­ful of res­i­dents who live there. The devel­oper took a large church and only made five mas­sive lofts, as opposed to try­ing to cram in as many one-level units as pos­si­ble. This build­ing is one of the most unknown, yet cov­eted, church con­ver­sions in Toronto. Fea­tures of these lofts include spa­cious suite sizes, mul­ti­ple lev­els of liv­ing space and unique floor plans that pre­serve the brick building’s grand archi­tec­tural fea­tures. Email or phone 416−388−1960 today if this build­ing inter­ests you.

Milling­ton Lofts
5 & 7 Milling­ton Street
One of only three free­hold loft con­ver­sions in Toronto, these stun­ning lofts are stun­ning exam­ples of excit­ing world class design. Spec­tac­u­lar soar­ing atri­ums above cir­cu­lar metal stairs, unbe­liev­able glassed-in ground floor court­yards, 1,000 square-foot roof gar­dens, you can’t ask for much more. Fea­tured on the Cab­bage­town Tour Of Homes, these inced­i­ble New York-style lofts were built in 1915 and once the sta­bles to the Met­calfe Man­sion (circa 1885). Email or phone 416−388−1960 today if this build­ing inter­ests you.

The Swan­wick Her­itage Lofts
21 Swan­wick Avenue
Located on Swan­wick Ave. stands a century-old church that has a sense of his­toric Toronto East, in the Beach. Built in 1893 and rec­og­nized as a her­itage build­ing in 1984, this church today has been con­verted into a mod­ern loft con­ver­sion. The Her­itage Lofts has ten lofts fea­tur­ing three, or even four lev­els, they offer fin­ishes includ­ing high ceil­ings, orig­i­nal stain glass and wood details, and engi­neered hard­wood floors. The Swan­wick – Her­itage Lofts on The Beach is an extra­or­di­nary church con­ver­sion into mod­ern lofts that embrace the her­itage and tex­ture of the orig­i­nal 1893 Gothic Revival church. Email or phone 416−388−1960 today if this build­ing inter­ests you.

Bed­ford Man­sion
118–120 Bed­ford Road
These are high-end lofts in one of the most beau­ti­ful parts of the Annex. Con­verted from a century-old her­itage man­sion, these units range from around 1,250 square feet up to 1,500 square feet. For those want­ing to live in a slice of Toronto’s Vic­to­rian his­tory, but do not want the main­te­nance asso­ci­ated with own­ing a house, these are a per­fect alter­na­tive. Com­pleted in 2003, these lofts fea­ture peer­less design & fin­ishes includ­ing dis­tressed ash hard­wood, lime­stone floors, gran­ite back­splashes & coun­ter­tops, ceil­ing medal­lions, stain­less steel light fix­tures and more. They have 2 bed­rooms and most have 3 wash­rooms. They all have park­ing in pri­vate garages behind the home. Email or phone 416−388−1960 today if this build­ing inter­ests you.

Hunt Club Res­i­dences
1111 Avenue Road
The Toronto Hunt Club, an address of dis­tinc­tion for over 100 years, is now an exclu­sive enclave of lux­ury town­homes and one and two-level loft-style con­do­mini­ums. The hand­some ren­o­va­tion pro­vides an ele­gant streetscape, while pro­tect­ing many grace­ful his­toric fea­tures, such as the sweep­ing stair­case in the foyer and the Jacobean style of the orig­i­nal officer’s mess from the days when this was an RCAF train­ing school. Today, the Hunt Club com­prises 21 exclu­sive loft units, rang­ing from 1,500 to 2,000 square feet, so they are as much as home as any­thing. Ceil­ings range from 10 feet to a soar­ing 17 feet. All have 2 bed­rooms, though some have dens, with 2 or 3 wash­rooms each. Email or phone 416−388−1960 today if this build­ing inter­ests you.

Feather Fac­tory Lofts
2154 Dun­das Street West
Carved from the early 20^th cen­tury Toronto Feather and Down Com­pany fac­tory on Dun­das Steet West, the Feather Fac­tory Lofts is one of the newest addi­tions to the Toronto loft con­ver­sion scene. Ris­ing only 5 storeys above the inter­sec­tion of Dun­das and Ritchie, this bou­tique loft houses only 44 hard lofts. These lofts retain the orig­i­nal charm and work­man­ship of the wooden posts and beams. Large expanses of mul­lioned win­dows high­light the indus­trial nature of the lofts. Exposed brick seals the hard loft appeal. Ceil­ings range up to 14 1/2 feet in this con­verted fac­tory. Top­ping it all off, stain­less steel counter tops in the kitchen high­light the fac­tory feel of the Feather Fac­tory Lofts. Email or phone 416−388−1960 today if this build­ing inter­ests you.

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With large open spaces and huge ceil­ings, loft con­ver­sions have long been pop­u­lar among artists for the area they offer in which to work. Toronto and other major met­ro­pol­i­tan cen­tres are see­ing an increased demand for loft devel­op­ments due to the con­ve­nience offered by a do-it-yourself, unre­stricted space. Keep in mind when look­ing for lofts in Toronto that they are much more in demand than ever before; com­bined with the nat­ural real estate prices in the Toronto area this means that loft seek­ers can’t expect their space to come cheaply – most lofts are more expen­sive than stan­dard condominiums.

The con­ver­sion of old ware­houses to loft units is com­monly called “hard” lofts (as opposed to “soft” lofts, which are new from the ground up). This hard loft style is what is offered in the Mer­chan­dise Build­ing, on Dal­housie Street in down­town Toronto near Ryer­son Uni­ver­sity and the Eaton Cen­tre. The Mer­chan­dise build­ing was built as a depart­ment store, and later became a Sears ware­house, before being con­verted to lofts in the 1990s under the guid­ance of the City of Toronto.

There are cer­tain char­ac­ter­is­tics that are essen­tial to loft liv­ing. Loft own­ers are typ­i­cally inclined to cre­ate their own space while still main­tain­ing easy access to impor­tant areas and ameni­ties of the city. Toronto offers sev­eral devel­op­ments that can meet the require­ments of any poten­tial loft owner.

Con­verted lofts have a cer­tain allure. With high ceil­ings, open floor plans, rough-hewn floors and brick walls, they are a hip hous­ing alter­na­tive for many urban pro­fes­sion­als. Today’s loft dwellers embrace new-age urban liv­ing in all its glory. Those who buy these unique dwellings have shaken off long daily com­mutes, grant­ing them more per­sonal time, more cul­tural and enter­tain­ment pos­si­bil­i­ties and an active, city lifestyle. If you crave some­thing eclec­tic, out of the ordi­nary and con­ve­nient to all the city has to offer, a loft may be for you! Select from newly con­structed (soft) lofts, or restored his­tor­i­cal build­ing loft con­ver­sions (hard lofts).

One def­i­n­i­tion for a loft is “An appeal against con­ven­tion– con­ven­tion in think­ing, con­ven­tion in build­ing and con­ven­tion in liv­ing. They are a cel­e­bra­tion of open con­cept liv­ing and uncon­ven­tional spaces brought about by the con­sid­ered appli­ca­tion of imag­i­na­tion and a rejec­tion of mass-market hous­ing.” I like that con­cept, as it embraces the main con­cept behind a loft, to live in an extra­or­di­nary space.

The ori­gin of the word loft comes from the Old Norse “lopt” which means upper room or air. In 19^th Cen­tury Eng­lish usage the word came to mean the upper sto­ries of a ware­house or fac­tory. The mod­ern boom in the con­ver­sion of such spaces into liv­ing areas came in the 1940s in the SoHo Dis­trict of New York City. By the 1970s so many of these con­ver­sions had been done that the city was forced to re-zone the area to make such con­ver­sions legal.

By the 1980s the con­cept was spread­ing first across the United States and then to Europe and Asia. As the trend grew it caught the atten­tion of devel­op­ers iden­ti­fy­ing a new mar­ket. Devel­op­ers being devel­op­ers did not let a lack of own­ing an exist­ing ware­house or fac­tory build­ing to con­vert stop them from mov­ing into the new mar­ket. Thus the new word Loft began to be applied to units in ground up new con­struc­tion. Need­less to say the term grew fuzzy.

Loft con­ver­sions are part of the Post­mod­ernism move­ment in archi­tec­ture. Post­mod­ernism is a counter-reaction to the strict and almost uni­ver­sal mod­ernism of the mid-20^th cen­tury. It embraces ele­ments from his­tor­i­cal build­ing styles incor­po­rat­ing them with­out a rigid adher­ence to one style. It also does not as pol­icy try to hide the struc­tural or mechan­i­cal ele­ments of a build­ing but often uses these in the design.

What is a “hard” loft?

A true loft is a con­ver­sion of a vin­tage fac­tory or ware­house. They have a harder edge as they are usu­ally con­structed of con­crete or “mill” con­struc­tion of exposed brick, orig­i­nal wood posts, beams and floors. Typ­i­cally, these lofts have an open floor­plan and unfin­ished ceil­ings that are at least 10′ high with exposed ducts, plumb­ing and elec­tri­cal. Exam­ples include the Mer­chan­dise Build­ing, Lib­erty Lofts and the Toy Fac­tory Lofts.

What is an “artist live/work” loft?

Toronto bylaws allow for the devel­op­ment of build­ings with “artist live/work” zon­ing. The first of these devel­op­ments appeared in 1982 on Shanly Avenue (near Bloor and Duf­ferin) and most fea­tured min­i­mal fin­ish­ing, 16′ ceil­ings and steel frame con­struc­tion. The City’s zon­ing restricted their use to peo­ple who were engaged in a pre­cisely defined list of artis­tic activ­i­ties. Over time these build­ings have come to be occu­pied by peo­ple who sim­ply enjoy the loft life.

Here are some of the unique joys of the loft life:

* Indus­trial build­ings – The term loft began in New York and Chicago when renters and own­ers began con­vert­ing old indus­trial build­ings into liv­ing spaces. The orig­i­nal ten­ants were artists who craved the high ceil­ings, large win­dows and open floor plans typ­i­cal of con­verted ware­houses and factories.

* Open spaces – The pri­mary ben­e­fit of loft liv­ing is the large open spaces that allow you to live and move how you want, rather than hav­ing your move­ment defined by a per­ma­nent floor plan of walls, door­ways and rooms.

* Define your areas – In a loft, the floor plan can be fluid and ever chang­ing. You can set up a sleep­ing area in one part of the space, then move it some­where else if you have guests or if you just need the area for another use. Kitchens and bath­rooms are more per­ma­nent, of course, but tem­po­rary par­ti­tions, hang­ing cur­tains, or even changes in floor cov­er­ing can define other spaces.

* Eclec­tic style – Another nice aspect of many lofts is the oppor­tu­nity for eclec­tic design and dec­o­rat­ing. For exam­ple, a loft might fea­ture soft, del­i­cate win­dow treat­ments on rein­forced fac­tory win­dows, or a mod­ern couch sit­ting on a hundred-year-old hard­wood floor. This mix­ture of old with new and prac­ti­cal­ity with com­fort can form a won­der­ful esthetic that makes the most of a loft’s mixed-use nature.

Regard­less of the type of loft, all lofts should have cer­tain basic com­mon elements:

* Open, flow­ing floor plans

* Min­i­mal uses of inte­rior walls to define space and doors to close off areas

* High ceil­ings – some def­i­n­i­tions set min­i­mum ceil­ing heights at twelve feet or it is not a loft just a condo with high ceilings

* Exposed pip­ing, duct­work, struc­tural elements

* Large windows

* Access to the sky often with roof top gar­dens or decks

* Eas­ily merges liv­ing and work space, blur­ring the lines between work­place and residence

* Mixes tra­di­tional medi­ums with mod­ern fin­ishes – con­crete, metal, stone, brick, wood used freely along­side of dry­wall, ceramic tile and vinyl