Distillery District Condos & Real Estate Toronto

The Distillery District is a national historic site, with 13 downtown acres and over 40 buildings forming the largest, best preserved collection of Victorian Industrial Architecture in North America. It is also Toronto’s first pedestrian-only village, and the city’s only designated historic district.

Reaching eastward from Parliament Street to the West Donlands, and south from Mill Street to the CN railway tracks, this highly popular destination and address comprises the site of the Gooderham & Worts Distillery, founded in 1832. Once the world’s largest distillery, in its heyday it annually shipped over 2 million gallons of whiskey all over the world.

When the distillery closed its doors in 1990, the potential for investment and redevelopment was evident; however, with the economy in recession, the crash in downtown office lease rates and residential condominium prices put the district’s revitalization on hold. While two residential condo buildings were built on the periphery in the 1990s, eleven years passed before the site was purchased by Cityscape Holdings Inc. in 2001 and transformation into a pedestrian-oriented arts, culture and entertainment neighbourhood was begun.

In 2003, the district reopened to the public to great acclaim. The new owners refused to lease retail and restaurant space to chains or franchises, and accordingly, the majority of the buildings are occupied with unique boutiques, art galleries, restaurants, jewelry stores, cafés, and coffee shops, including a popular micro brewery. The upper floors of a number of buildings are leased to artists as studio spaces and to office tenants with a "creative focus". A new theatre, the Young Centre for the Performing Arts, is home to the Soulpepper Theatre Company and drama productions from nearby George Brown College.

In just a few years, The Distillery District has become one of the most romantic destinations in the City — the brick lined streets and European piazza styled areas earning the Globe and Mail’s description as “a picture postcard draw” and National Geographic Magazine’s designation as a “top pick” for visitors to Canada.

With development of residential condos, offices and more retail space on the surrounding vacant lands, the transformation of the Distillery District from abandoned industrial site to one of Toronto's most distinctive neighbourhoods is expected to accelerate.

For current information on available listings for Distillery District condos and real estate, please see the column at the right of this page. Listings are updated daily, so we recommend that you bookmark this page and check back frequently