33 PINE ST / 2 COWDY ST - SOLD
The Essentials
A downtown red-brick fourplex as pretty as anything we’ve seen in the city. Two two-bedroom units and two studios. All of them vacant and ready to go.
The Bigger Picture
To say it’s rare to find a multi-unit property so well-finished, so bright and well-organized, so ready for your hand-picked tenants (every unit is vacant), just so darned pretty, is to understate things by a lot.
We’ve known that this listing was coming for a long time (there were originally two municipal addresses, by the way, and we’ve revived those here; I like the feel of that longer handle, and it feels a more accurate representation of what you’re looking at) but until very recently we’d only been inside one of the studio apartments that face onto Cowdy St. It’s absolutely immaculate in there, sure, and I could hide out happily, at least until the books ran out, but it felt impossible (or unwise) to extrapolate from that one space. We were excited, but cautiously so. Because you never know, do you? It’s a very odd world out there.
But the big picture, it turns out, is even more lovely than we imagined it might be. The seller lived in one of the two-bedroom units (they both face Pine St), and exactly how a decision was made to leave that apartment I’ll never know. Up on that second floor it feels to me a lot like the bridge of a ship. Inside, I was convinced that one could live there and shape to some nearly supernatural degree the course of one’s life. There is a real power that comes with the space, is how it feels, however odd that sounds (and it surprises sceptical me to no end), and the temptation is to just move in myself.
There are polished hardwood floors, both new and old, everywhere you look, and plenty of exposed brick too. You would be pleased to see any of the four kitchens in your own home (as long as you don’t live in some mad west-end mansion, in which case you’ll be wanting some Greek columns, I bet, and maybe an under-counter garbage incinerator, a couple of flat-screen TVs). The bathrooms are the same way - well-built and like new - and it wasn’t until we’d toured the whole building that I realized just how unusual it is to not find fault.
Being a landlord can be tough work, and we’re all too aware that being a tenant is often no picnic either. But with a property like this one our expectation and hope is that everyone can be happy, or more than that - thrilled with where they’ve ended up, which is to say downtown, as part of the Inner Harbour neighbourhood, a short walk from the parks and the shops, the university campus and the river. There is even a small pea gravel courtyard that reminds us of The Pig’s patio, only rendered in adorable miniature.
Tenants pay their own hydro here (it’s baseboard heat) and the costs are modest enough because the house is well-renovated and well-insulated. The owner pays water and sewer.
We’ve projected what we think are some reasonable rents and see a Cap Rate here right around seven percent. Yes, you read that right - seven percent.
When I was last in there I suggested to the owner that I knew even then how I should end this piece. “Buy it because it’s beautiful,” is what I said made sense to me. And I feel the same way today, even at this more critical remove. It’s a good one, and you should cal your agent, or call us if you don’t have one. We’d be thrilled to show you around.
