I mentioned this already in the video from last week, but it warrants a reminder: I really, truly do remember when Liberty Village was nothing but townhouses.

Today, Liberty Village is home to over five thousand condominiums, and thus probably upwards of ten thousand full-time residents.

But back before 2005, Liberty Village was a barren wasteland, as just about every neighbourhood of Toronto was at one point in history.

As many of you already know, Liberty Village was a penal district back in the late 1800’s, and yet only one building from that era remains, which is that awkward brick building to the east of Liberty Village Park, which just about everybody in the area figures, one day, will become a condo:

This was actually the prison chapel for the Toronto Central Prison up until 1915, and while it’s lasted this long, I personally wouldn’t put it past the City of Toronto to allow this to be developed.  I mean, if you can build 90-storey towers on top of the Princess of Wales Theatre, then anything is possible in this cash-strapped city.

I’ll save you the rest of the history lesson, except to say that Liberty Village was home to commercial/industrial industry for the better part of a century (including plants that made munitions for the war, as well as Irwin Toys which made the iconic G.I. Joe line!), until the late 1990’s when factories closed, manufacturing operations ceased, and the rail corridor was a shadow of what it once was.

I entered real estate in 2003, and I’ll be honest – I had never heard of Liberty Village.

I was also not working much in the downtown core or west end, and thus I didn’t watch the pre-sales for the Liberty Village Townhomes.  I had absolutely no idea this area of the city even existed, but this was before Google Maps, MLS as we know it, and the wealth of information that people in 2019 enjoy both personally and professionally.

Somewhere around 2005, I found myself looking for 2-bedroom, 2-bathroom condos for under $300,000.  I know, I know – those of you looking for one-bedroom condos under $500,000 don’t want to hear this, but it provides some context for the history of real estate in Liberty Village.

Looking on MLS, I found townhouses on a street called “Western Battery Road.”  No, I had never heard of it before.  But who knew this would become one of the areas I’d frequent the most over the next decade-and-a-half in the entire city of Toronto.

Liberty Village is now home to over 5,000 condos, but it all started with the complex of townhouses we know now on East Liberty Street, Western Battery Road, and Pirandello Street.

Built from 2005 to 2006, this complex is made up of four different condominium corporations, and approximately 500 units.

So consider what it was like back in 2005 or 2006 to turn right when heading south on Strachan Avenue, onto East Liberty Street, and drive through the area.  This was far from a “neighbourhood” at this point, with just a few acres of townhouses, and little supporting infrastructure.

There were other condominiums under construction at the time, but the only existing and completed residential condos were these townhouses.

I said that I would save you the history lesson of Liberty Village, but I meant pre-2005.  Today, let me explain how Liberty Village as we know it was developed, starting with those townhouses.

Once the townhouses were in place, the next decade would see a massive spike in condo construction, and personally, I divide this into two “waves.”

Each wave left its mark on Liberty Village, with the first wave bringing condo towers to the area for the first time, and changing the skyline, and the second wave happening so fast that we didn’t know what hit us.

Let me go through the construction of Liberty Village in chonological order, with the dates representing the registration date of the condos, not the occupancy dates.

The first major “complex” was built by Monarch Developments at 80 Western Battery Road, 100 Western Battery Road, and 50 Lynn Williams Street:

12/6/2006 – Battery Park Condos – 50 Lynn Williams Street – By CanAlfa Group

11/27/2008 – Zip Condos – 80 Western Battery Road – By CanAlfa Group

11/19/2010 – Vibe At Liberty Village – 100 Western Battery Road – By CanAlfa Group

The three condos above should be highly recognizable to most of you, with 50 Lynn Williams Street being the central “hub” for the complex.

These condominium buildings, all separate condo corporations, added 931 units to the area’s housing stock, and almost tripled the number of residential units in Liberty Village once completed.

In between the registration of 80 Western Battery Road, and 100 Western Battery Road, we also saw the registration of 43 Hanna Avenue:

11/28/2008 – Toy Factory – 43 Hanna Avenue – By Lanterra Developments

This building added another 218 units to the area, bringing the total now to 1,615 by the end of 2010.

The building also brought a new developer into the mix: Lanterra.  Up until now, only CanAlfa and Monarch had broken ground in the area.

Toy Factory remains one of the most notable hard-lofts in the city of Toronto, and I believe the addition of this building added some character that’s necessary for any residential neighbourhood to thrive.  Monarch’s three buildings were just condos.  Toy Factory was an incorporation of the area’s history.

The “first wave,” as I refer to it, continued into 2011 when we saw the registration of the two condos at 55 East Liberty Street and 59 East Liberty Street:

6/21/2011 – Liberty Towers – 59 East Liberty Street – By CanAlfa Group

9/1/2011 – Bliss Condos – 55 East Liberty Street – By CanAlfa Group

These towers added another 286 and 276 units respectively – another 562 units, bringing the total in Liberty Village to 2,177.

This ended what I call the “first wave” of the condo construction boom in Liberty Village.

From 2005 to 2006, the Liberty Village Townhouses were completed and some 466 units were among the first to give residents a home in the area.

Monarch Developments gave us the three condos on Western Battery & Lynn Williams.

Can Alfa Developments gave us the two buildings on East Liberty Street.

And Lanterra Developments added the iconic Toy Factory on Hanna Avenue in between.

In only six years, this area went from wasteland, to the home of six condo towers, and 466 townhouses, not to mention the infrastructure that came along with it.

In 2013, the “Second Wave” began with the completion of a little known building at 5 Hanna Avenue:

2/27/2013 – 5 Hanna Avenue – Liberty Market Lofts – By BLVD Developments

I believe these units were first marketed as “17 Foot Ceiling Lofts,” for which incessant ads were played on the radio during the pre-sale period:

Imagine that?  The pre-construction condo boom resulted in radio ads for new condos!  That was a major turning point in the heat of the market, I’ll never forget.

The “17-foot-high-ceilings” ended up being those 2-storey units where the bedroom overlooks the living space, so not really 17-foot-high-ceiling lofts, but this did satisfy a need among the buyer pool who wanted 2-storey units.

This building is located in the bowels of Liberty Village, between the Tim Horton’s and the massive Toronto Police Traffic Services headquarters.  You’d miss this building if you weren’t paying attention.

This was followed shortly thereafter by the (eventual!) completion of a massive project by Plazacorp at 65, 75, and 85 East Liberty Street:

7/19/2013 – King West Condos at Liberty Village – 65, 75, 85 East Liberty Street – By Plazacorp

Yes, that’s the rendering of the buildings and not an actual photo (I mean, when did the townhouses get replaced with trees?), but it’s a better representation than anything you’ll find on MLS!

These buildings took forever to complete, and even longer for the growing pains to cease, but they now stand as a fantastic complex with low fees, tremendous amenities, and a reasonable price point within the neighbourhood.

There was that little incident with the meth lab back in 2014 that made the buildings infamous for a moment, but that smoke has cleared.

This was the biggest change in Liberty Village, in my opinion.  The Monarch buildings on Western Battery and Lynn Williams were north and somewhat removed from the action, and while 55-59 East Liberty changed the “main drag” that is East Liberty Street, it wasn’t until these three honking buildings appeared that people started saying, “Wow, Liberty Village has changed a lot!”

It’s also when our view down East Liberty Street started to look like this:

Last but not least, it’s when many of us started losing track of what buildings were being built in the area.

I remember showing up one day and saying to myself, when in the hell did this building get built?  Which building?  69 Lynn Williams Street:

6/30/2013 – Liberty On The Park – 69 Lynn Williams Street – By Can Alfa Group

That’s a very flattering photo of the building, since it’s taken with the park in the foreground.

But the building just sort of showed up out of nowhere, built yet again by CanAlfa, who had already constructed all of the townhouses, as well as 55-59 East Liberty Street.

The trend of “buildings popping up out of nowhere” continued with 125 Western Battery Road:

12/27/2013 – The Tower At King West – 125 Western Battery Road – By Plazacorp

I’m being facetious when I say that these buildings came out nowhere, but I mean that when the first condos were constructed, it was a big deal!  We noticed!  By 2013, the second wave of the construction boom was in full flight, and this was the fourth condominium to be registered that year.

In early 2015, another building in the same block was registered at 150 East Liberty Street:

4/17/2014 – Liberty Place – 150 East Liberty Street – By CanAlfa Group

But seriously, to all the buyer agents out there, have you ever headed down to 150 East Liberty Street, and for a moment maybe turned toward 125 Western Battery Road?  Or 69 Lynn Williams Street?

I just can’t explain how quickly this boom happened.

Last but not least, we saw the completion of this second wave of construction with 51 East Liberty Street:

11/26/2015 – Liberty Central Phase I – 51 East Liberty Street – by CanAlfa Group

And that concluded a 2 1/2 year period, from February of 2013 to November of 2015 when a whopping 2,980 units were registered in eight towers.

The total in Liberty Village?

Now up to 5,157 units, give or take, from my calculations.

So let’s review…

In 2005-2006, we saw ten blocks of townhouses added to a non-existent residential area, bringing 466 units to the neighbourhood.

The first wave of post-townhouse, condo development lasted from 2006 through 2011, and saw 6 condos and 1,711 condos added.

The second wave of condo development from 2013 to 2015 saw 8 condos and 2,980 condos added.

And now?

Well, let’s save that for Thursday…

(TO BE CONTINUED…)