However you look at it, the ramshackle, stucco houses recently listed for sale at 122-124 Peter St. - two adjoined, lopsided funhouses - are an anomaly.
They're among the last private homes in the downtown core that haven't been refurbished for commercial purposes. They're surrounded by glitzy nightclubs, trendy retailers and spiffy condos. But, vacant and poorly maintained, they look like they're falling apart. The windows are cracked. Some of the interior floors tilt, inducing vertigo. The tiny, fenced-in front yard is strewn with urban detritus.
Truth be told, they're an eyesore.
But, for any prospective buyer, an expensive eyesore.
"I don't want to be bothered with it any more," says the property's owner, 76-year-old Donald Woods, explaining why he's put it on the market. Scion of the same family that bought the house after it was built in 1871, Mr. Woods says he'd been renting it for years. "But people kept skipping the rent, and it cost me money to go to court to get them out."
Someone put him in touch with commercial realtor Andrea Kraus, and the "For Sale" sign went up, nailed to the building itself. Even before it did, says Ms. Kraus, "We had an offer for $3.5-million. But then the economy fell apart and it faded away."
Still, that's about the price she expects the site will eventually fetch. She's says she's had a steady stream of inquiries.
The current projected price is a lot less than the $4.5-million Mr. Woods says his mother was offered by a pizza company just before the real-estate crash in the early 1990s. Another potential buyer offered $2.5-million four years ago.
Ms. Kraus has had the site environmentally assessed - it's clean - and a proper survey prepared. The double lot, each with three bedrooms, has 50 feet of frontage on Peter Street and extends 150 feet deep. There, Mr. Woods is currently earning revenue on 21 parking spaces, renting them for up to $200 a month. Taxes last year totalled $10,219.
Mr. Woods, a retired steamfitter and taxi driver who lives in Leaside, says the house was originally bought by his great-grandfather, Alexander McKenzie (not the prime minister, incidentally) - the mortgage was provided by British investors, and was passed down eventually to his mother. But it has always been used as a rental property. Mr. Woods, who was raised on Simcoe Street and as a youth worked at the family's York Street general store, bought the houses from his mother's estate seven years ago.
Old as they are, both houses are on the city of Toronto's list of heritage properties. But neither has been formally classified as a heritage site. That designation, says Ms. Kraus, would complicate any sale. As it is, any buyer will be free to raze the houses and build a condo or commercial building, assuming permits.
In the meantime, Mr. Woods is in no hurry to sell. "I don't really need the money," he says. "I just don't want the bother."