Building in
Downtown Toronto

A garden suite is a self-contained second home in the backyard, with its own kitchen, bath and separate entrance. Cabbagetown and South Riverdale sit on the deep Victorian and Edwardian lots and rear-laneway networks these suites depend on, where the setback, size and access rules are easier to satisfy than on tighter central parcels.

Since Toronto's 2022 zoning amendments, garden suites are as-of-right on most lots that meet the setback, size and rear or laneway access rules, so there is usually no rezoning or variance. In a core where renting is the norm, owners build one for rental income, an aging parent, or a studio steps from downtown. We design and build it as one team.

Multiplex work means building or converting a property into a duplex, triplex or fourplex. The low-rise belts of Leslieville, Trinity-Bellwoods and South Riverdale are full of semis and rowhouses suited to gentle-density conversion, and with a deep base of younger renters around them, these blocks take naturally to added rental units.

Up to four units are now as-of-right in Toronto residential zones under Expanding Housing Options in Neighbourhoods (EHON, 2023), and Bill 23 provides development-charge relief on the initial units. For owners and investors holding rental income close to transit and amenities, we carry the design and construction under one roof, from drawings to occupancy.

A custom home is built from the ground up under a design-build model: one team carrying the project from architecture through construction, with fixed-price contracts available. Downtown, this usually takes the form of a knock-down rebuild or an infill house slotted between the Victorian and Edwardian fabric of streets in the Annex, Cabbagetown and Riverdale.

Building new in the old core means working tight lots and heritage-sensitive streetscapes, where a single accountable team matters. You keep full control of the plan, materials and finishes, while we manage the realities of a constrained central site, neighbouring structures and a home that has to sit comfortably among its older neighbours.

Downtown is a renovation market first. Its Victorian and Edwardian semis and rowhouses across the Annex, Cabbagetown and Riverdale are full of character worth preserving, which is exactly where kitchens, bathrooms, basements, additions and full-home renovations earn their keep, adding usable living space to a home you already own.

We work as a design-build team, one group from concept to completion, with scope and price set before work begins. That discipline matters in heritage-sensitive central homes, where original detail, plaster and tight footprints reward careful planning. The result is a period house that keeps its character while it gains a layout built for how people live now.