MARCH 4, 2025

Dear reader,

I recently attended an after-party at a friend’s loft in the Merchandise Building —arguably downtown Toronto’s best-known factory conversion. I’d never been inside, and I was taken with how fun the place was. Located at Gould and Dalhousie, the building was erected in 1910 as Simpsons’ flagship warehouse, the largest in Canada at the time. By the 1990s, prescient developers had purchased the place, transforming it into 526 residential units.

Curb Appeal’s top post this week is one of the building’s coolest lofts: a two-bedroom standout with 11-foot ceilings, wall-to-wall windows and a wrap-around terrace. The building’s amenities are fabulous too: an indoor basketball court, an indoor pool and a dog run equipped with faux fire hydrants.

Also in today’s newsletter: $2 million for a Scarborough detached with a gold-plated LED wall. Plus, a cottage in the Grey Highlands with a grizzly bear statue standing guard. For all of our real estate coverage and more, visit torontolife.com or subscribe to our print edition.

—Barry Jordan Chong, city and real estate editor

Simpsons, Toronto’s former go-to department store, built the Merchandise Building in 1910. Then Canada’s largest warehouse, it changed hands and identities many times over the next century. In 1978, for example, it was purchased by the Hudson’s Bay Company before eventually being sold to Sears Canada. Then, in the ’90s, Sears sold the city-block-size building to developers Cresford, who transformed it into 526 residential units.

Here’s a 3,700-square-foot detached in Birchcliffe-Cliffside. It’s equipped with four-plus-two bedrooms, five bathrooms, three parking spots, an iron-lined mezzanine, fluted everything and a basement that’s its own unit.

What luxury log cabin would be complete without a grizzly bear sculpture, cathedral ceilings, a commercial-grade kitchen, shingles that mimic cedar, a double dose of bunkies and speakers wired into tree trunks? 

In the latest issue: Edward Rogers was dismissed as a meddling nepo baby—until he muscled out his siblings, acquired his competitors, cornered the telecom market and became the dominant force in Canadian sports. Plus, murder in the Blue Mountains, the ultimate Florida road trip, winter-worthy margaritas and more. Still not receiving Toronto Life at home? 

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