Condo Living

June 5, 2025 Published by Toronto and Area Chapter - By James Russell

Condo Profile: One Old Mill - TSCC 2418

From the Spring 2025 issue of CCI Toronto Condovoice Magazine.

Where bronze stands proudly before the gold standard of condominiums

Gracing the threshold of One Old Mill is To the River, a magnificent bronze sculpture of a female swimmer in repose amid the Humber River’s reeds and currents,” according to Toronto artist, Alexander Moyle. The resplendent work is indicative of the care, skill and vision that residents of One Old Mill have come to treasure in their board and management.

Located on the northwest corner of Riverview Gardens and Bloor St. West, One Old Mill stands on the furthermost western boundary of Bloor West Village, a lively section of Toronto which extends from Riverview Gardens east to Ellis Park Road, a meandering north-south thoroughfare that forms a portion of High Park’s western border. The Village holds the distinction of being Canada’s first Business Improvement Area, a designation now shared by eighty-three City of Toronto neighbourhoods.

The architecturally striking One Old Mill was completed in 2014 and contains two-hundred and eighty-five, one and two-bedroom suites occupied by a mix of young families and older Canadians, approximately forty-five percent of whom are renters according to Paul Philbrook, the Board’s President. One Old Mill’s owners and renters enjoy a wide range of amenities including a well-equipped gym, party room, 24/7 concierge, outdoor patio, coin laundry, yoga studio, pool, three guest suites, and a dedicated dining room with an adjacent kitchen. For the convenience of the building’s dog owners, “On P1 level, there is a hose in the bike/car wash area. If your poor doggie is layered with slush and ice after a walk, you could rinse him or her,” says Paul.

One Old Mill’s very active Social Committee, headed by the Board’s Communications and Socials Director, Brian Porter, organises a Summer Solstice party, monthly Book Club meetings, Games Night, Friday Happy Hour, a yearly Potluck BBQ, and an Academy Award Party in their luxurious, eighteen-seat theatre. On the night of Hollywood’s most gala event, residents win a chocolate replica of Oscar for the most accurate winner predictions. One Old Mill’s Kids Halloween party is especially popular with the buildings, “witches, fairies and friends,” according to the Board’s newsletter. “We’re a very social building,” says Brian with pride. Many of One Old Mill’s spring, summer and fall social events take place on their expansive rooftop Sky Lounge, which affords residents and visitors a panoramic, two-hundred and seventy-degree view of the city - north, south and west.

The building’s Green Committee, headed by the Board’s Secretary, Chris Coniglio, coaches residents on how to conserve electricity, plans and coordinates their yearly herbal garden planting and serves as a welcoming committee, helping new residents navigate the building and understand how to use One Old Mill’s wealth of amenities. Several times a year, the Green Committee sets out a food donation bin in the lobby. The items collected go to the Bloor West Food Bank, a local charity that serves over three-hundred and twenty-five area families each week.

“Do we always agree?,” asks Paul of their monthly Board meetings, “No, but we have respect for each other’s opinions, and our meetings are characterized by real affinity and sense of purpose,” to which Chris adds, “We mesh.”

One Old Mill’s five-member Board is made up of Paul Philbrook, President; Ernesto Gradin, Vice-President; Thomas Bond, Treasurer; Chris Coniglio, Secretary and Brian Porter, Director of Communications and Socials. Paul, the Board’s third President, purchased his suite four years before One Old Mill was ready for occupancy and moved in on

‘day one’. He says of his decision to move from his Mississauga home to a Toronto condominium, “Bloor West Village is neat, the Kingsway is near and this is a beautiful-looking building.”

“I’m actually the veteran on the Board, says Brian, “I ran (for the Board) once we went through the registration process and I stayed on the Board ever since.” Ernesto, who has an extensive engineering background, is the Board’s go-to resource for everything related to the building’s wellbeing. “We do very good maintenance,” he says of the Board’s loving attention to their building’s continued good health.

The Board communicates with residents via their web portal, email and the two notice boards in each of their three elevators. As well, the Board publishes two newsletters. Paul’s monthly President’s Update is a well laid-out, four-pager full of important news, management notices, new staff announcements and upcoming social events. Brian’s The Insider, a two-page, multi-coloured, polished newsletter, published several times a year, is packed with photos, announcements and One Old Mill success stories.

“What makes us work really well is that we are all professional, thought-provoking people and I think we challenge each other in a healthy environment, at least once a month. We get into healthy debates about certain things but we always seem to come to a consensus,” says Chris. “We’ve seen a real nice transition over the years as the Board has evolved,” adds Brian.

This year’s AGM, which takes place in June, will be their first fully hybrid meeting, giving owners the option of attending in person or participating virtually.

As with most condominium corporations across Canada, the pandemic burdened the Board with significant cash-f low challenges. “We didn’t have any party room revenue, and we didn’t have any guest suite revenue, which is pretty significant,” says Tom. Additionally, having to hire extra cleaning staff and the cost of supplies severely impacted One Old Mill’s operating fund. “So by the end of the year (2020), we were basically out of money,” says Tom. Nevertheless, through effective fiscal management and good governance, the Board kept their yearly maintenance fee increases to the single digits.

One Old Mill’s knowledgeable and experienced Property Manager, Anila Hysi is assisted by Maria Buli, five security staff, six cleaners, and Victor Castillo, who handles the building’s heavy-duty cleaning chores. Victor was hired in 2018 and is the longest-serving member of the One Old Mill family. At year-end staff receive a generous ‘thank you’ from the Board’s ten-thousand-dollar Gratuity Fund.

As with any building entering its second decade, what can fail, will fail and that applies to the components of big-ticket items like boilers. “We replaced the burners in all three units and bought one extra (burner) to have it as spare,” says Ernesto. The successful project, completed last year, was an unwelcome but not a total surprise, certainly not for Ernesto, “You cannot expect a burner to last forever.”

In early 2024, the Board had thicker mats installed in the free weight area of their gym to mitigate the sonic boom that we gym rats know results from those of us who insist on dropping our weights to the floor.

As a cost-cutting measure, and to reduce the building’s carbon footprint, three years ago the Board had the common areas, including One Old Mill’s five-level underground parking garage retrofitted with LED lighting.

Activities organised by their Green Committee include Earth Hour on March 22nd, Earth Day in the third week of April, and a Spring Clothing Swap on May 3rd - all to raise awareness around the need to protect Mother Earth. In the early spring, the Green Committee also meets to decide what to plant in the One Old Mill’s rooftop herb garden, popular with the building’s culinary champions.

Long before being mandated by law, the Board installed electric vehicle charging infrastructure on every level of underground parking garage. “The first President had made that (EV installation) a priority and I would say in so many ways he was ahead of the curve. A couple of us on the Board were wondering at the time, ‘Is that really what we wanted to be thinking about?’ and in the end it was absolutely the right decision,” says Brian.

A donation area in One Old Mill’s basement provides residents with the opportunity to ‘adopt’ unwanted items such as appliances, dish ware, clothing and furniture, mitigating the building’s contribution to landfill. To handle resident’s daily detritus, each floor has a recycling room with two chutes, one for recyclable items and one directs organics and garbage to their respective ground-level destinations. Residents deposit glass in the dedicated bins located in every recycling room.

In 2024, the Green Committee launched their In-Suite Energy Consumption Tracking Project to help residents understand how their energy usage compares to other units of similar square footage. The goal of the ongoing project is to not only save the corporation money but also reduce the building’s carbon footprint. The data, which is submitted voluntarily and anonymously by each suite, will eventually be analyzed using software powered by artificial intelligence.

“Residents have a really good understanding of the Board and what we do and appreciate the work that the Board does”, says Brian who adds, “Residents are happy to let us manage the affairs of the condominium.” And in the condominium industry, that level of trust in a Board is truly golden.

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James Russell, Newsletters et Cetera