Micro-suite rental building in Toronto occupies a luxurious niche somewhere between Airbnb and hotel

A new rental offering in Toronto caters to high-end wanderers

Open the nondescript door of 1305 Dundas St. W., and one is greeted, warmly, by a little sign: “Welcome home, Wanderers,” it reads. “Stay a while.” A little arrow prompts the wanderer to trot up to the second floor, find his or her doorway – one of 24 over two floors – and flop down on the very comfortable bed, or, perhaps, whip up some scrambled eggs in the tiny kitchen.

But will wanderers respond to something that dwells in the twilight zone between AirBnB and hotel? A very luxuriously furnished something, yes, but will they pay a premium – room rates start at $2,000 a month – to be shoehorned into less than 400 square feet? Or, in some cases, less than 200 sq. ft.? Will the onemonth minimum stay make them run screaming?

Laleh Rouhani of Luloo Boutique Homes is betting they’ll run right to her front door, smiling.

“There’s a new trend that people don’t want to be tied down to one place,” she says. “They don’t have homes, they just travel from one city to another, and they live in one place for two or three months.”

Ms. Rouhani is perched on a long, turfed grey sofa in the generous common space of “Numbers Residence,” which might very well be Toronto’s first microsuite, short-term, furnished rental concept to hit the market.

To her left is business partner (and older sister) Pouneh Rouhani, and, sprouting from the wall to her right, a friendly-faced, sculptural giraffe holds a chandelier in its mouth. Both sisters throw the term “nomad” around while describing the project, so it’s no surprise that, across the corridor, an extremely large photograph of a grizzled, wool-capped and baggy-panted nomadic gentleman takes up an entire wall over the coffee station.

While the clothing may not be the same, the 21st century seems to have produced a whole new type of roamer: able to carry their job(s) around in their laptops and armed with both wanderlust and a disgust for the out-of-control housing market, these new Romani are citizens of the world … as long as there’s WiFi available. And as Toronto grows ever larger, they’ll arrive on our shores too, needing a place to set up their “tents.”

Or, they’ll come from right here: Although Numbers has only accepted tenants since mid-December, most hail from within the Greater Toronto Area.

“There was some research saying that people are happier in less clutter,” says Ms. Rouhani, who came to Canada from Iran in 2004 with her older sister and parents.

“Minimalism, you know?” her sister interjects.

The younger woman continues: “It backed up the idea of micro-units, so it was always on our mind looking for the next project, and then this building came up.”

It was certainly front-and-centre in Pouneh’s mind, since she had done her masters thesis at the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management on that very subject.

Of course, because COVID-19 hit, it took the duo twice as long – two years to be exact – to finish bringing this bricks-and-mortar test case to life. And since the original 24 units they inherited had building-code issues – some “dwelling rooms” didn’t have kitchens while others had makeshift (and probably illegal) ones – and a dangerous, antiquated HVAC system throughout, it became a gruelling two years to boot.

However, with the help of architects Ja Studio, interior designers Commute Design Studio and general contractor Dazz Group, the end result is spectacular.

Even in the smallest units, the high ceilings, herringbone floors and the option of having more than one place to sit turn what could have been a sad dorm room into a happy nook for writing one’s screenplay.

In some of the larger units, a few stairs carry one to an arched opening containing the bedroom “wing,” enormous windows look down onto the hustle-and-bustle of Dundas Street, and built-in furniture maximizes dining space. And all rooms are tied together by the same materials and colour palette: warm grey kitchen cabinets and countertops; sleek black faucets; and latticework screens in natural wood or paint cover closet doors, whole walls, or even, cleverly, the ductless minisplit systems.

And because the sisters have a keen eye for decorating, there are thoughtful and tactile details as well, such as blobby little flower vases, kettles with wooden handles, and ceiling moulding to give the eye a place to rest.

In all, the micro-units of Numbers Residence are warm, inviting spaces that any nomad would be happy to call home.

Of course, a concept such as this would not work in suburbia. As Pouneh Rouhani points out (and what her thesis substantiated), a big part of what tenants are paying for in a micro-suite is what’s not in it at all, but rather just outside the front door. And here on Dundas Street West near Dovercourt Road., all within a quick sprint when it’s -15 C, are restaurants, bars, flower markets, cheese shops, hipster cafés, butchers and hair salons.

Speaking of which, before the sisters tackle their next Luloo project, they’d love to find the right retail/commercial tenants for the two large spaces on the ground floor. “We would love to have a local [business] that goes with the image of the building, of the street,” Laleh Rouhani says.

While the pair were hoping for a spin studio or gym – the spaces are too large for a mom-and-pop coffee shop – recent events suggest those operators might be gun shy. So, with this writer’s help, a few ideas are run up the flagpole: how about a coffee roaster, a microbrewery, or a small supermarket?

The Rouhani sisters have built it … so will they come? They’d be foolish not to.