A downtown condo is waiving rent and offering reduced rates for hospital and emergency services employees as a thank you for their work during the pandemic.
Lanterra Developments is providing 45 suites in the residential rental wing of The Britt condo, located at the northeast corner of Bay and Wellesley in the former Sutton Place Hotel.
For the market-rent suites, Lanterra is waiving rental payments for June and July. One bedrooms plus den start at $2,220 and two bedrooms start at $2,975. Renters will only need to pay utility charges.
Twenty-five of the rent-controlled suites are available at below market rent, with bachelor apartments available for $1,618 per month, one bedrooms plus den at $1,874 and two bedrooms at $2,195. These reduced rates are available for June and July.
Renters will have to sign a standard lease agreement.
“As a gesture of gratitude to thank frontline workers for their unwavering service, we decided to use our available resources to provide these workers with the best quality living experience, easing their workdays when they return home,” says Lanterra chairperson Mark Mandelbaum.
The Sutton Place Hotel was a 33-storey luxury hotel and apartment built in 1967. Liberace, Sofia Loren, Elizabeth Taylor, Stevie Nicks and Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau were all guests and the building was a destination for celebrities during the Toronto International Film Festival. In the 1980s, the building fell into disrepair and was purchased by Lanterra in the early 2010s. The company redeveloped the property, gutting the interiors and building an additional eight floors.
Since the pandemic, various programs and grassroots initiatives have sprung up to help health-care workers find housing. Airbnb launched a partnership with the SEIU Healthcare, the largest health-care union in Canada, to provide free accommodations in Airbnb units to frontline workers. The national volunteer-run initiative Health Worker Housing connects health-care workers to short-term housing during COVID-19 and was inspired after a British Columbia nurse posted on Facebook that she couldn’t find affordable accommodations where she could safely physically distance from her family.
The Britt is within walking distance of Sick Kids, Mount Sinai, Women’s College Hospital and Toronto General Hospital.
The 45 suites are available on a first-come, first-serve basis and both options – rent-controlled and market rent with waived payments – are currently still available. To apply, frontline health-care workers can call 416-929-5151 or go to brittluxuryresidences.com.
