Gotham Lofts, Toronto Condo Reviews 

I have been living here for 2 years and it's a great charming, intimate building in an excellent location and oozing with tons of character throughout the building. It rare to find an authentic hard loft in the city and especially in the hot and popular King West neighbourhood.

Gotham Lofts was built almost 100 years ago as a horse harness factory, and over the years became a garment factory to an office building. It was converted into residential live-work lofts in the late 90's when the area was still a very industrial and gritty neighbourhood.

I bought when the Minto condo was being constructed next door and I am happy with how it turned out. My unit faces the new building and I actually gained tons of afternoon sunlight from reflection off the glass. There is a nice courtyard between the buildings and I still have a nice view south to the Gardiner and waterfront.

What I love about this building is the intimate size with just 54 units. Combined with that there is a level of features and amenities that is unheard of in a small building: A nice gym amenity, tons of guest parking, at least one parking space per unit, a soon-to-be-renovated meeting/party room, concierge service, 24-hour security, 2 elevators plus a freight elevator, and large storage lockers.

The neighbourhood is also awesome. It's centrally located and close to everything, but still at away from the chaos of the clubs and bars of King West/Entertainment District east of Bathurst. It's just a block away from Stanley Park with a great dog park, tennis courts, baseball diamond, kids playground and swimming pool.

The smallest units in the building are actually the 2-storey units with most of them located on the lower floors. Some of them have a steel spiral staircase while others have a traditional straight staircase which do take up floor area. These units are a bit quirky but I have seen some homeowners renovated them really nicely, so they do have great potential.
Most of the units are on one level with generously sized rooms and no wasted space and are sized between 700 and 1,400+ sq.ft. (1- and 2-bedrooms), however, these units don't come on the market very often and do sell very quickly. I have a large one-bedroom unit on one floor which I have renovated top to bottom which I get tons complements and even some offers to buy my place. I love to cook and entertain so having a large kitchen with gas cooking (which most units have), lots of cabinet space, and a big open living space are very important to me and is one of the reasons why I bought here.

As this is an authentic post and beam hard loft, all of the units feature exposed brick walls, exposed wood strip ceilings and huge heavy timber beams and columns, exposed ducts and pipes, and ceilings ranging from 9.5 feet to 12 feet (most ceilings are 10 feet tall).

Yes, authentic lofts do not have the same level of sound insulation as most modern condos but the residents understand that (especially in a small buildings) and there is a level of respect and consideration you don't see in larger buildings. The majority of the building is owner-occupied (mostly professionals in their 30's to 50's) so there is a nice level of civility and peace in the building.

The building is well managed with a great property manager and a very proactive and accessible Condo Board. The building is financially healthy and for an old small building with amenities, the maintenance fees are very reasonable.

There are no hard lofts on King West so the closest comparables would be the Candy Factory Lofts on Queen Street W and the Wellington Worx Lofts which are priced much higher than here.

I've only seen 2-story 1 bedroom units in this building, and although the idea of the iron spiral staircase is one that gets you interested, in reality it totally destroys the floorplans of the units and makes them almost unusable. Add in premium pricing because of the location, and it's not a good combination!

Gotham Lofts was originally a harness factory (built in 1917) and is one of the top vintage loft buildings in King West. Ceilings are 9-12 feet high with wood slat ceilings (I uploaded a pic) and exposed brick and beams. There are only 50 lofts in the building, with both one and two-storey units. The two-storey units have cool rod iron spiral staircases. Finishes in the units themselves vary quite a bit and there are some that have been really well renovated (while others present opportunities to do it yourself).

The common areas are groovy (with unforgettable leopard-print carpeted hallways), and there's a gym, boardroom and visitor parking.

Noise isn't too bad in the building (for an authentic loft), and I'm curious to see how the light will change with the newly constructed Minto building next door.