By Matt Gonsalves
Vice President, Mortgage Lending, Foremost Financial
How Harvie Townhomes is turning a standard Toronto lot into four homes for families to own — and offering a small-scale example of missing middle housing in action.
By Matt Gonsalves
Toronto’s housing shortage is often discussed in terms of towers, transit corridors, and large development sites. But some of the city’s most important housing opportunities may be hiding in plain sight: on the standard residential lots that already exist across Toronto.
Harvie Townhomes is one example.
Located on a 25-foot by 125-foot lot, the project is replacing one aging home with three townhomes at the front of the property and one detached garden suite at the rear. Once complete, all four homes will be registered as condominiums and sold individually.
It is a small project by conventional development standards. But in a city looking for more housing options, projects like this may have an outsized role to play.
A Different Kind of Developer
I recently had the opportunity to tour Harvie Townhomes with developer Dan Zimberoff, whose path into real estate development is anything but typical.
Before becoming a developer, Dan served in the U.S. Navy as a fighter jet pilot. He graduated from Top Gun and is a veteran of the first Gulf War. After retiring from the Navy, he entered the legal profession, working with condominium corporations and helping homeowners.
He has also written three books, all published on Amazon.
And now, he is building homes.
For Dan, the transition into real estate development was not as unusual as it might first appear. His father was a lawyer who helped put real estate deals together and cherry-picked the best ones to co-invest in. Dan grew up around job sites, and that early exposure left a lasting impression.
As Dan put it, real estate has always been “in his blood.”
Replacing One Home with Four
Harvie Townhomes began with an older house that had reached the end of its useful life. Rather than replacing it with one larger single-family home, Dan obtained minor variances to create four new homes on the same lot: three townhomes and one detached garden suite.
That detail matters.
Once complete Dan will register all four units as residential condominiums and list them for sale.
In a city where housing affordability and supply remain persistent challenges, this kind of gentle density can help create more options for families to experience the pride of home ownership within established neighbourhoods.
Why Condos Instead of Purpose-Built Rental?
In Toronto, many multiplex projects are built as purpose-built rental properties and refinanced with CMHC financing once complete. Harvie Townhomes follows a different model.
Dan decided to register the homes as condominiums and sell them individually.
As Dan explained, the decision came down to his business model. Rather than holding the homes as a long-term investment property, he wanted to build a development business that would allow him to compound capital from one successful project to the next.
But there was also a deeper purpose behind the decision.
Dan wanted to help create missing middle homes that give people the opportunity to buy, not just rent.
From the outside, a multiplex condominium project may look similar to a purpose-built rental project. But the design considerations are different. When the end product is a home that someone will own, the developer has to think carefully about how people will live in the space, how they will enter it, how much privacy they will have, and how the home will feel day to day.
Designing Homes, Not Just Units
For Harvie Townhomes, Dan worked with Evan Saskin of Blue Lion Building, one of the leading architects in Toronto’s missing middle housing space.
Dan described Evan as “tremendous” and said he knew early in the process that Evan was the right person for the project.
One of the key distinctions between purpose-built rental housing and multiplex condominiums is that condos are designed and sold as homes. That difference shapes the architecture.
At Harvie Townhomes, the homes have separate entrances, a townhouse-style layout, and design features intended to reduce issues such as footfall noise between units.
These are not simply units on a spreadsheet. They are homes people will own and live in.
That mindset is important as Toronto continues to explore ways to add density within existing neighbourhoods. The success of missing middle housing will depend not only on whether new homes can be approved and financed, but also on whether they are well-designed and desirable for the people who will eventually live in them.
What Other Developers Can Learn
Dan has also been generous with his time, consulting with people who are exploring the multiplex condominium space.
His advice is simple: align yourself with people who have experience.
Multiplex condos remain a niche product. There are important differences between building purpose-built rental housing and building condominium homes for individual sale. Understanding those differences early can save a developer time, money, and frustration.
Having the right architect, consultants, and advisors around the table is essential.
A Small Project with a Larger Lesson
Projects like Harvie Townhomes show what is possible on Toronto’s existing residential lots.
They create more housing without requiring large land assemblies. They provide buyers with more options. They add gentle density to established neighbourhoods. And they replace aging housing stock with new homes that are better suited to the needs of today’s city.
Toronto’s housing challenges will not be solved by one type of project alone. Purpose-built rentals, high-rise condominiums, affordable housing, laneway suites, garden suites, and multiplexes all have a role to play.
But Harvie Townhomes is a reminder that small projects can still have a meaningful impact.
One old house is becoming four new homes.
And for four future homeowners, that matters.
About Matt Gonsalves
Matt Gonsalves is Vice President, Mortgage Lending at Foremost Financial. Matt works with builders, developers and real estate entrepreneurs across Southern Ontario, providing bridge loans on commercial properties and construction financing for small infill, missing middle, and multiplex housing projects.
About Foremost Financial
Foremost Financial provides bridge loans and construction financing for experienced builders and developers across Southern Ontario. The firm specializes in small infill construction projects, missing middle housing, private mortgage lending, and practical financing solutions for real estate developers.