A stunning Toronto church is up for sale at $22.5 million

A gorgeous Toronto church is up for sale for a staggering $22,500,000.

While this 1871-built landmark comes with a steep selling price, there is more at play than meets the eye with this preserved heritage property, situated in a pocket of the city expected to witness major intensification thanks to the forthcoming Ontario Line subway.

Currently in use as an event venue, the heritage-designated Berkeley Church at 317 Queen Street East has been up for sale since mid-2022.

The 14,000-sq-ft church building's selling price of $22.5 million, along with annual property taxes of over $78k, may seem expensive on the surface. However, the site is part of a fast-changing neighbourhood due to transform around the planned Moss Park station on the Ontario Line, and could prove a key asset for the wealthy new homeowners set to flood into the area.

The site is being shopped after a lengthy battle behind the scenes to approve plans for an adjacent condominium development proposed by the church's owner.

Following a 2022 land severance, the site of the church is being sold separately from the adjacent buildings at 301-311 Queen Street East, which is subject to the pending redevelopment.

A 2022 advertisement for that adjacent site posted by Colliers advertises its development potential with a rendering of a condominium tower that has long been working its way through the City's planning and approvals process.

Berkeley Events proposed a 25-storey residential tower for the church and lands to the west in 2016, appealing their plan the following year to the Land Planning Appeal Tribunal (LPAT) (renamed to the Ontario Land Tribunal, or OLT, in 2021) after City planners failed to render a decision on the application in the prescribed timeframe.

That LPAT appeal was dismissed in 2018, leading to an appeal of that ruling in 2019. That appeal resulted in an early 2021 approval of a reduced scope, outlined in an updated submission filed in mid-2022, proposing a 17-storey tower, for a drop in height by eight storeys from the initial proposal.

The current proposal calls for 144 condominium units along with new office and retail space, which would tower above the venue.

Meanwhile, the church building is set to live on as a venue minus a 20x100ft section of its courtyard ceded to the development site next door.

The property has now sat on the market for the better part of a year.