A Sweet Suite On Sorauren Avenue In Roncesvalles Village

For those who love to live modern, this crisp, contemporary urban residence is the perfect marriage of style and function. Well-situated just south of Dundas West on Sorauren Avenue – just steps from the Dundas West streetcar, beloved Sorauren Park, and the high street that is Roncesvalles Avenue – this mid-rise condominium in Roncy offers the very best in urban living!

Welcome to 383 Sorauren Avenue, Suite 401!

I Love Roncesvalles Village!

Nestled in one of the City’s original neighbourhoods – Roncesvalles Village – 383 Sorauren Avenue is well-situated for those seeking a vibrant pedestrian lifestyle.

Located in a neighbourhood predominantly comprising 2 and 3-storey Victorian and Edwardian wood frame to solid brick residences constructed as early as the 1880s for Toronto’s working and merchant classes, Roncesvalles Village has not changed dramatically from a visual perspective over the past 100 years beyond the addition of a collection of infill townhouses, a smattering of architect-designed dwellings, and the handful of mid-rise condominiums (like 383 Sorauren) and a few hard loft conversions. The housing stock is predominantly well-built, well-proportioned, and well-preserved.

The heartbeat that radiates throughout this neigbhourhood rests in the rhythmic pulse of Roncesvalles Avenue – a mixed-use arterial road with a bike lane and public transit. Serving as the area’s predominant retail, cultural and community hub, two major east-west streets framing this quadrant – being Queen Street West and Dundas Street West – further anchor this location with its commercial and tertiary services, transportation links, and access to major roads and highways.

Roncesvalles Village is renowned for being the centre of Toronto’s Polish community from the 1940s through the 1990s. In fact, it still retains several prominent Polish institutions including St Casimir’s Catholic Church, as well as many Polish businesses including butchers, bakers, and restaurants. You only have to wait until September to see the history of this urban village on display, as it remains the location of the largest Polish Festival in North America which takes place annually every autumn. The local businesses – which operate as the Roncesvalles Village Business Improvement Area – have evolved since the 1990s to reflect the tastes and preferences of the more recent arrivals who have made this neighbourhood their home over the past 3 decades. These residents – who tend to be liberated, progressive, and lean to the left pro-urbanites – are frequently first-generation Canadians whose parents immigrated from all corners of the globe. This has resulted in a growing number of unique restaurants, entrepreneurial boutiques, and indie coffee houses that are part of the new lifecycle of this urban village.

Complementing this eclectic collection of boutiques are all the essentials for daily life including Loblaws, Pollock’s Home Hardware, Shoppers Drug Mart, and the LCBO. Plus there are plenty of local retailers who welcome your business like the organic butcher (The Meat Department), the baker (Hot Oven Bakery), the vegetable monger, and the florist (Willem & Jools) on Roncesvalles Avenue too. Oh, and be sure to make The Revue Cinema your movie night destination, and Boomerang Pilates and Wellness your fitness support team. I do!

One of the benefits of being well-situated in an urban village is having access to all points north, south, east, and west. Sorauren Lofts is just one block east of Roncesvalles Avenue and half a block from Dundas St West, so a 5-minute stroll this way or that will bring you to your morning cuppa or a TGIF cocktail! Or find both by walking three minutes south to I DEAL Coffee & Wine Bar at 221 Sorauren Avenue; where their tagline reads, “quality, community, and sustainability!”. For something to snack on, try Food and Liquor, right at Sorauren and Queen. They are famous for tasty tapas – especially dumplings!  And we can’t talk about delicious options in this community without mentioning Dave’s Hot Chicken! Yum! Fancy a bite of something sweet? Options abound with Craigs Cookies, Yummy Stuff Bakery, and Glory Hole Doughnuts. For superb casual dining, another of our favourites is The Local. And if you are passionate about healthy eating, pick up pantry items and prepared meals – all focused on wellness – at The Simple Kitchen!

Don’t you love a great fusion? Something truly unique occurs when you adapt a space for multiple purposes, like Jinks Art Factory on Queen – part tattoo studio, part coffee bar, and part art space! These are the kinds of exciting purveyors that dot the Roncesvalles and Parkdale ‘hoods! We also love all the galleries and art collectives, like LaLa Contemporary, Onecloud Garden Gallery, and General Hardware Contemporary.

No urban lifestyle is truly complete without quality green space in your ‘hood. Sorauren Park was created after neighbourhood residents objected to the City of Toronto’s plans to convert a former bus garage into a facility for storing City vehicles. It was truly a community effort to bring to fruition! The park, which opened in 1995, now hosts several sporting fields, a farmer’s market on Mondays, and contains a field house for community gatherings. There are two mini-soccer fields for youth soccer, two tennis courts and one baseball diamond. At Halloween, the park becomes a stunning festival of lit pumpkins and in the wintertime, ice rinks are set up on the field. Recreate and congregate in all seasons!

Centrally located, 383 Sorauren Avenue is a short drive to the QEW highway and only a block south of the Dundas West streetcar that connects to the Bloor subway line or travels east directly into the central core. While the immediate surroundings convey its industrial heritage, including several loft conversions to the south and across the street (I was part of the development team for the baseball glove factory conversion at One Columbus), what’s especially delightful is how the neighbourhood offers all of the amenities of village life; everything is within reach when your home has a walk score of 86 and a transit score of 97!

383 Sorauren Is An Eye-Catching Contemporary Confection

I really like this building, a lot!

383 Sorauren Avenue is visually arresting, well-appointed, and its cubicity complements the industrial architecture it surrounds.

A mid-rise boutique condominium developed by Centrestone Urban Developments Inc. & Gairloch, 383 Sorauren Avenue was designed by the award-winning architectsAlliance, with interior design features by Johnson Chou. Completed in 2016, the project is 10 storeys tall with a total of 142 suites. It offers on-site amenities including a concierge, a swish fitness centre, party/meeting room, security system, and visitor parking.

Intelligently designed with exacting attention to detail, this south-facing 1bed + den, 2bath, 700+ square foot ‘concrete n’ cool’ cube features a generous sun-drenched balcony! I adore the way Suite 401 has been decorated as well: clean lines, a minimalist aesthetic, and a decor fusing Boho and Japandi styles. There’s something about the all-white interior contrasting with the concrete ceiling – along with the wood accents in the kitchen, and Scandi-style plank flooring – that makes it feel more expansive than many units of its size.

One reason is how perfect the proportions are in this suite. The front hall with its uber-convenient ensuite locker and coat closet, stacking laundry zone, and access to the sleek spa-style 4-piece washroom with deep soaker tub, doesn’t eat up a whole lot of square footage and offers just enough circulation space to ensure this suite unfolds as a series of articulated living spaces instead of a jam-packed micro-apartment. We adore the generous den – perfect utility for second bedroom, study, nursery or work-from-home space. How brilliant!

The open plan entertainment zone is generous, and given its high ceilings and expansive wall of glazing connecting to the balcony, it feels light and airy, in part because the space gets flooded in natural daylight. The lounge has front-row seats to its south-facing sky vista with massive sliding doors that walk out to the balcony that is big enough to feel like you’re actually walking out to a destination. Hello, shimmering morning sunshine cuppa with birdsong accompaniment!

The kitchen features sleek built-in appliances that keep the proportions crisp and clean, with bright quartz countertops for food preparation – or your Friday night charcuterie board with wine and friends! A warm wood built-in dining table for four is attached to the smartly-designed island, extending the utility of the kitchen while keeping the linearity of the architecture. It’s one of the little touches that makes this place so perfect.

The bedroom is accessed off the lounge through a smooth sliding partition door for privacy. This is a clever design trick, as it visually expands the space and allows more natural light to flood the bedroom. A generous double closet is situated adjacent to the sleeping area, and this zone for rest and rejuvenation is made complete by a dreamy spa-style ensuite bath with a frameless glass walk-in rain shower. Love!

With included underground parking for one vehicle and having reasonable common fees of $532.19 (inclusive of CAC, Building Insurance & Common Elements and Parking), and plenty of awesomeness times infinity, this terrific soft loft is definitely worthy of your consideration! Might this one be the one for you?

Want to learn more? Contact james@urbaneer.com for more info!

* Brought to your attention with the kind permission of our colleagues at Century 21 Regal Realty Inc.