Bijou on Bloor - midrise jewel on Bloor West Village

The aptly named Bijou on Bloor will bring a new residential gem to the heart of fashionable Bloor West Village. The 12-storey boutique condominium from Plaza will provide intimate midrise living close to a world of shopping choices just minutes from the subway.

The project helps fill the ‘missing middle’ in the neighbourhood – the type of sought-after multi-unit housing that fills the gap between detached lowrise homes and highrise living.

“It’s a little jewellery box on Bloor West, the fashion district of Canada. It’s an exciting location,” says Scott McLellan, Plaza vice-president. “We’ve worked with the community and city. We wanted to make sure to maintain the integrity of the community and didn’t want a large building.” Quadrangle architects have designed a contemporary, sophisticated building for Plaza that blends well with its surrounding neighbourhood.

Good things come in small packages and Bijou on Bloor will be no exception, with beautifully designed interiors, private terraces and the type of first-class amenities you’d find in a five-star hotel. Most of the suites will face north and look out over the greenery and trees of the Humber River and surrounding residential neighbourhood; some suites will face south with views of Lake Ontario and the CN Tower.

“It’s really unique, no question about it,” says McLellan. “You’re in an existing vibrant neighbourhood but close to the downtown core.” In just 15 minutes on the subway, Bijou residents can be downtown.

There are plenty of reasons to linger in Bloor West Village itself. The charming Toronto west neighbourhood is chock full of mom-and-pop shops, specialty stores selling food, fashion and more, eateries and pubs. It’s a compact, walkable neighbourhood that’s easy to explore on foot and High Park is a short distance to the east.

Bijou on Bloor will certainly appeal to mature buyers living in surrounding neighbourhoods such as High Park, Old Mill, Swansea, Runnymede and The Kingsway who want to downsize from large homes to a smaller, maintenance-free option. Plaza is also attracting interest from younger professionals who grew up in the neighbourhood and want to move back there.

The suites are generously sized, averaging 900 to 1,000 sq. ft. and “that doesn’t exist anywhere else in the city,” according to McLellan.

“We chatted with one couple with a 20-something daughter,” McLellan says. “She’s going to move into Bijou on Bloor with her fiancé and in five or six years, they’ll move into her parents’ house and the parents will move into the condo. We are seeing a lot of decisions like that.”

Plaza is catering to two different markets with Bijou on Bloor. One is the buyer who wants a one-bedroom suite with den that starts in the high $600s. Even at that price point, buyers will receive a Miele appliance package. For most two-bedroom and larger suites, priced up to $3 million, all finishes will be of superior quality and buyers will receive Wolf 36-inch ranges and SubZero refrigerators.

“People are really impressed with the appliance packages,” says McLellan.

When planning the amenities, Plaza took into consideration the feedback from informal meetings with potential purchasers who will have resale homes in the area. As a result, Bijou on Bloor will have a beautiful indoor pool with an adjoining indoor-outdoor terrace on the second-floor with views of the neighbourhood. Other amenities include a fitness centre, steam room, lounge with bar, private dining room with catering kitchen and 24-hour concierge. There are also three high-speed elevators to whisk residents to their suites.

For more information visit pureplaza.com/bijou-bloor