When buying a place where you’ll live for many years, you must purchase a property that feels just right – one with an emotional resonance that says “Hey, you belong here!”
Beyond the location parameters, spatial criteria, and functional needs with which most buyers limit themselves, it’s important to take a moment to visualize your perfect home. (If you need help, refer to our popular Online Housing Profile.)
Lofts tend to have all the qualities I love in a living space – high ceilings, massive windows, private outdoor space, and a crunchy n’ cool aesthetic that reminds me how unique and rare these creative spaces are in the grand scheme of the City’s housing stock. In fact, they didn’t exist in Toronto until 1999! In the early 90s, I had completed my Graduate Degree in Planning Housing Environments and was working with development teams in the concept, sales & marketing of adaptive reuse conversions into loft condominiums. In 1996, the City of Toronto rezoned the enormous swath of industrial land that currently comprises our Financial and Entertainment Districts to allow ‘Live-Work’ uses, which paved the way for more Hard Loft Conversions and newly constructed Soft Lofts. I sold the first hard loft conversion completed under the new Live-Work zoning – The Monarch Building at 436 Wellington West – as well as the first Soft Loft completed at 20 Niagara Street located between Bathurst and Portland Streets.
A quarter of a century later, I’m grateful to have been engaged in this form of city-building. In my opinion, loft living is an ideal contemporary environment to complement a bright-lights-big-city lifestyle.
Hey, you belong here!
I knew my destiny included a life in Toronto when I arrived from Victoria, BC, late one night in 1986 to go to university. I can vividly recall my cosmopolitan excitement buzzing as I was whisked along on the elevated Gardiner Expressway from the airport into the glittering nightscape of skyscrapers – and the soaring CN Tower! At the time, it was astonishingly the tallest structure in the world. Walking into my pal’s father’s penthouse with a panoramic view of the CN Tower – like a real-time postcard – I instantly knew I had found my future.
I’ve had a love affair with the CN Tower ever since. Little did I know that 9 years later, my primary bedroom in the Button Factory would be My Room With A Peek-A-Boo View of the CN Tower. Whenever I catch a similar CN Tower view from one of our property listings, it re-awakens my deeply embedded near-forgotten love for living in a place where you get to experience a private moment with that pointy edifice. After all, only those who live in Toronto get the privilege.
If you’ve never been in a Soft Loft, you should come to view one of our listings – like the two highlighted below! Along with having the sun kiss your face when lounging on a terrace, being able to skip rope without fear of ripping out a ceiling fixture, and feeling your larger-than-life personality fitting perfectly in its scale and proportions, these walk-to-everything lickety-split locations are dynamite.
After all, isn’t where you Live & Love what it’s all about?
~Steve
Are you looking to make a soft landing in your own soft loft? Here are a couple of past contenders to inspire your search:
We’re head over heels for this panoramic penthouse we sold in one of the City’s rare and coveted factory loft conversions! We called it: A Penthouse Confection Overlooking Trinity Bellwoods Park In The Chocolate Company Lofts – NOW SOLD!
Offered for the first time since The Chocolate Company Lofts was converted in 2004, this crisp n’ cool open 815sf Soft Loft Penthouse features 10’ ceilings, exposed spiral ductwork and a panoramic wall of glazing with uninterrupted park-city-sky vistas. Walk in or walk out from 3 sliding doors to a private 196-square-foot landscaped perch overlooking the historic storefronts on Queen West and Trinity Bellwoods Park. Originally a 2-bed layout, the Seller customized it with the developer. Consider it your blank canvas!
We also adore this smart and sleek pad below that we had the pleasure of selling in Leslieville. We called it: So Sweet Ya Gotta Brush Yer Teeth – On Colgate Avenue In Leslieville – NOW SOLD!
This sun-kissed ground floor unit – one of only two 2-bed units on this level – has a premium patio with south exposure. Seriously, whether you’re in the bloom of youth, baby-making, giving your boss the Freedom 55 finger – or just YOU being YOU – when you live here life will be more dynamic, people will be more engaging, and everything that matters will be within walking distance!
Did you enjoy this post? Check out some of my related posts:
Dear Urbaneer: How Do I Know This Is The Right Home To Buy?
Stylish Two-Bedroom Condos Are In Demand, But Hard To Find In Downtown Toronto
Hybrid Home/Work Arrangement Trend Calls For A Cool Home Office
Exploring Vintage Brick & Beam Factory Conversions & Concrete ‘N Cool Contemporary Lofts In Toronto
Toronto Loves The CN Tower (And So Do I!)
Before & After: A Builder Grade Toronto Condo Goes Back To Its Factory Roots
A Conversation About Corner Store Conversions In Toronto
12 Recent Adaptive Reuse, Live/Work, Storefront & Coach House Conversion Sales In Toronto
Want to have someone on your side?
Since 1989, I’ve steered my career through a real estate market crash and burn; survived a slow painful cross-country recession; completed an M.E.S. graduate degree from York University called ‘Planning Housing Environments’; executed the concept, sales & marketing of multiple new condo and vintage loft conversions; and guided hundreds of clients through the purchase and sale of hundreds of freehold and condominium dwellings across the original City of Toronto. From a gritty port industrial city into a glittering post-industrial global centre, I’ve navigated the ebbs and flows of a property market as a consistent Top Producer. And I remain as passionate about it today as when I started.
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Serving first and second-time Buyers, relocations, renovators, and those building their long-term property portfolios, our mandate is to help clients choose the property that will realize the highest future return on their investment while ensuring the property best serves their practical needs and their dream of “Home” during their ownership.
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Thanks for reading!
-The Urbaneer Team
Steven Fudge, Sales Representative
& The Innovative Urbaneer Team
Bosley Real Estate Ltd., Brokerage – (416) 322-800
– we’re here to earn your trust, then your business –
Celebrating Thirty-Four Years As A Top-Producing Toronto Realtor
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