7 St. Thomas Office-Condo Mixes Heritage With Ultra-Modern

7 St. Thomas, an office-condo in Yorkville that incorporates a row of heritage façades, is readying for occupancy next month. Bisnow dropped by the site for a sneak peek with developer Patrick Quigley (above), president of St. Thomas Developments. The project has 97k SF of office, including six, three-storey Victorian townhouses whose fronts have been fully restored, with the walls kept in place and braced throughout excavation and construction. (ERA Architects oversaw the job.) The rest of the building is ultra-modern, a nine-storey fritted glass tower boasting eye-catching curves.

Occupancy at the building, designed by Hariri Pontarini Architects, is slated to begin Dec. 12. (Patrick says owners will be responsible for finishing their own spaces.) St. Thomas Developments is locating its own HQ here. The boutique firm developed the adjacent 29-storey condo tower, One St. Thomas, just to the south. Other occupants at 7 St. Thomas—which is targeting LEED Gold—include a private equity firm, a dentist and a plastic surgeon. Several units remain available for sale, and Patrick says it’s been a challenge educating purchasers on the office-condo concept, relatively new for Toronto.

Above, a restored frieze. Patrick’s firm, also developing 88 Queen, acquired the land for 7 St. Thomas when it bought the One St. Thomas property. Numerous visions were floated for the site, including a high-end retirement home, an executive suite hotel and a luxury residential condo. “But you can’t cantilever over heritage,” meaning no balconies. “So by process of elimination we arrived at office-condos.” (Camrost Felcorp is also developing an office-condo in Yorkville.) Turns out several One St. Thomas residents bought units at 7 St. Thomas. Their condos are big enough to include offices, “but I think they missed having somewhere to go to work.”