Have you seen these?
Gorgeous, authentic, hard-loft condos, with open concept layouts, soaring 12-foot ceilings, exposed brick walls, and timber ceilings. All in the heart of Liberty Village in a century-old building.
These lofts would be in constant demand, in our red-hot 2015 Toronto market. Yes, they would be in demand, if they existed.
“Carpet Factory Lofts” don’t exist. But will they, one day?
Toy Factory Lofts
Feather Factory Lofts
Candy Factory Lofts
Printing Factory Lofts
Garment Factory Lofts
Notice a theme?
While lofts might be a niche part of the condominium market, it’s clear as day that what developers construct in 2015, or 2010, or even 1990, can’t hold a candle to what was built 100-years-ago.
And at one point, I would have been of the opinion that just about every century-old building left in Toronto would one day, become a condominium loft conversion.
The problem as I see it now: is this project big enough?
If a developer paid for that site on Mowat Avenue where the Toronto Carpet Manufacturing Company building currently sits, would they make more money turning that gorgeous, early-1900’s building into authentic hard lofts? Or would they make more money by tearing it down and building four 35-storey towers in its place?
That is the only thing standing in the way of this beautiful building becoming residential living one day. Well, that, and the fact that York Heritage Properties, who own the building, are in the business of leasing space, and not building condos. They’ve also clearly put a ton of money into the building, and the price for a developer to acquire the site might not be attractive.
This could be one of the most impressive hard-loft conversions in the city of Toronto, but only time will tell what will happen with the site.
Kyle
at 9:41 am
I’ve been inside the Carpet Factory buildings on Mowat, Fraser and Liberty.They are beautiful and would make incredible lofts, but they are already turned into offices for start-ups, tech companies, boutique investment firms, lawyers, architects, etc. The rents are quite high and there are very few vacancies. Converting them to residential lofts now would be a money loser. The Candy Factory, Chocolate Factory, Toy Factory, Tip Top, Knitting Mill, Wrigley, Robert Watson, Tannery, Foundry, Noble St, Massey, Gotham, etc where all converted before the neighbouhoods around them become super hot.
It’s too late for The Carpet Factory to ever become residential lofts, but there are still some other buildings that are pretty prime for loft conversion either residential or offices along Dupont in the West end (Dupont and Ossington, Dupont and Edwin, Dupont and Campbell) and some smaller scale buildings on Geary Ave. Most are currently under-utilized and in need of repairs. Over the next decade this will become a seriously prime neighbourhood in Toronto. The Fuse project at Lansdowne and the Peter Freed project that will replace the Galleria Mall are really just the beginning.
GinaTO
at 11:37 am
I live on Campbell, just south of Dupont. The big building on the south-west corner is being nicely renovated and already has many small-business tenants. Several galleries have moved closeby. And at some point, there will be a condo building on the south-east corner, with the Perth-Dupont library branch occupying the ground floor. It is already a great neighbourhood to live in (with rising prices to match), and it is very exciting to see retail and entertainment options improving.
Kyle
at 12:03 pm
Yeah i think most of the older buildings like the one at Dupont and Campbell are destined to be converted to office space instead of residential because the returns are way better. Similar pattern already happening on Wallace at Wade (home to Ubisoft software), and the humungous brick building at Dupont and Edwin (home to Freshbooks). That neighbourhoods going to be the next Liberty Village, except with a subway line close by.
condodweller
at 12:31 pm
The building on the N/E corner of Ossington and Dupont looks like a loft living space. I remember driving by at night and seeing it with the lights on. It may be close to what I described below.
condodweller
at 12:12 pm
I remember seeing the NY style lofts in movies in the 80’s/90’s thinking wouldn’t it be great to have those in Toronto. I would have loved to move into one of those. It’s nice to see the conversions of these old factories in Toronto to lofts, although I would not refer to them as hard lofts. “Hard” when describing a living space like a loft conjures images of a large factory space where you can have a basketball hoop in your “living room”, your bedroom is a makeshift podium above the kitchen and perhaps you even have a freight elevator, you know the one with the doors that open up and down. It would have all exposed brick walls and pipes and no defined living spaces, at least not defined by walls but rather with my choice of furniture layout. Definitely no drywall. I also wouldn’t call anything with less than a 1000sqft a hard loft.
It’s still good that there are some options in Toronto that resemble a real loft.
jn
at 1:13 pm
http://www.wikito.org/toronto-guide-the-best-hard-loft-condos/
daniel
at 10:49 am
West liberty village is employment lands, the city is intent on intensifying office use in this area and not allowing conversions of existing office space to residential. Although not impossible to convert, you could expect a very difficult fight with the city and then the OMB if you tried to turn that building into condos.
Marika
at 12:52 am
This is a great blog you have here. I have a humor blog myself which I hope will bring laghetur to everyone’s day. I’d like to exchange links with you to help spread some traffic around between each other.Please let me know if this is possible.JasonHilariousHeadlines.com/talk