QuadReal has purchased two low-rise buildings at 1149 and 1153 Queen St. W. in Toronto with the assumed intention of redeveloping the site into a multi-residential property.

The 0.64-acre, mixed-use-zoned site was owned by artist Ben Woolfitt. He previously operated an art supply store in the building at 1153 Queen that has commercial and retail space on the ground level and 10 residential units -- all occupied -- on the floor above it.

“He saw the potential of what the next phase of this property could be,” Lennard senior vice-president Vincent King, who brokered the off-market deal with sales representative Gabriel Irinici, told RENX.

King originally connected with Woolfitt in 2018 when the artist first thought about selling, but King said price expectations at the time were unrealistic. Ensuing efforts by other parties to get a deal done were also unsuccessful. 

But the two men stayed in touch over the years and Irinici re-engaged the vendor a year ago, learning that his pricing expectations were more realistic.

Bringing QuadReal into the picture

The Lennard colleagues thought Vancouver-based QuadReal, a global real estate company that has assets under management valued at more than $77.6 billion, would be a good fit to acquire the property.

“They understood this node and have a proven track record . . . and we wanted to make sure that the group that we brought to the table was a group that was going to be true to their word and operate in good faith,” King said of QuadReal, which declined to be interviewed for this article.

The vendor and purchaser settled on a price of $24.25 million.

“The process of finding the right buyer and figuring out all of the details that would actually get a deal done took a while,” King explained. “But once we had the right group and were working with QuadReal, the deal actually happened very quickly.

"From getting the deal under contract to a closing date was inside of 60 days, which in the development world is a pretty quick deal.”

The neighbourhood and property’s current usage

King said QuadReal liked the Queen West neighbourhood as a proven node for both purpose-built rental and condominium properties, and it also has lots of stores, restaurants and bars nearby. It’s on the Queen streetcar line and the future King-Liberty GO Transit station is planned for just south of the site.

“It’s one of the largest parcels of land remaining on all of Queen West, with 233 feet of frontage,” King said. “There are very few development opportunities of this calibre left in the City of Toronto.”

There’s approximately 4,000 square feet of vacant commercial space at 1153 Queen, where the other tenants are a dental clinic, a convenience store, a tattoo parlour and a cosmetic/medical business.

There’s a cannabis store and a second-floor artist studio in the smaller neighbouring building at 1149 Queen.

Potential future use for site

“There’s a good amount of lease term on everybody, but we’re confident that QuadReal will be able to put its plans in motion when the time’s right,” King said.

King didn’t want to speak on behalf of QuadReal as to what those plans might be, but said: “Especially around transit, you're seeing an increase in densities getting approved.”

Canada Post sold its 122-year-old former post office building just to the east at 1117 Queen St. W. to Queen Street Post Inc. for an undisclosed price in December 2021. 

While much of that two-storey, 11,354-square-foot heritage building will be maintained and used as a community space, the new owner has proposed building a 29-storey, 272-unit residential tower above and behind it.

“I can't say if that type of density will be achieved, but I think it's fair to say that we'll see more density and potentially more height than one would have expected in the past in this area,” King said.