A lakeside oasis for art and entertaining – The Globe and Mail

The listing: Suite 3901, 2045 Lakeshore Blvd. W., Toronto

Asking Price: $4,700,000

Taxes: $13,106.23 (2021)

Monthly maintenance fee: $6,629.40

Agents: Paul Maranger and Christian Vermast, Sotheby’s International Realty Canada

The backstory

One evening in 1996, entrepreneur and philanthropist Salah Bachir left his home in downtown Toronto and drove along the waterfront to the Palace Pier. Mr. Bachir arrived a little early for a dinner party and didn’t want to disturb his host, so he decided to take a walk along the shore of Lake Ontario.

Before the evening was over, Mr. Bachir was contemplating a move west to the landmark tower with windows of brown glass. He was drawn to the lakeside tranquility and the five-star amenities of the complex, which sits on nine acres of grounds.

“I play tennis and there was a tennis court,” he says. “It’s like a beautiful resort on its own.”

Mr. Bachir purchased suite 3901, with three bedrooms, three bathrooms and a vantage point high above Humber Bay and the sailboats moored nearby.

“I moved out of downtown so I could get a dog and walk it along the waterfront,” he says.

Looking back, Mr. Bachir believes his decision was subtly influenced by his childhood in Lebanon, where many homes overlook the Mediterranean Sea. His family emigrated from that country to Canada in 1965, when Mr. Bachir was 10.

As a young man, Mr. Bachir began supporting his artist friends by purchasing their works. He went on to become president of Cineplex Media and chancellor of OCAD University. Through the years, he became an esteemed patron of the arts. His private collection of works by Andy Warhol is one of the world’s largest.

In 2017, OCAD University awarded Mr. Bachir an honourary doctorate in recognition of his contribution to Canadian culture and his fundraising in support of health care and the LGBTQ+ community.

At Palace Pier, Mr. Bachir used the space to display his vast collection of paintings, photographs and antiquities – against the backdrop of a relaxing home.

“I’ve always wanted comfort in our places,” he says. “I didn’t want a place where you couldn’t sit and watch a football game.”

Soon Mr. Bachir’s mother and siblings were moving into Palace Pier as well.

“We’re a family of five kids and four were in the building, he says. “At one time we had nine units in the building.”

In 2005, Mr. Bachir learned that the neighbours one floor above were planning to sell. He purchased that unit as well and often used the added space to accommodate young relatives, refugee families and immigrants launching new lives in Canada.

“A friend of mine call the whole experience a ‘Lebanese Knots Landing,” he says, laughing at the reference to the 1980s TV drama.

By 2011, Mr. Bachir and his husband, artist Jacob Yerex, envisioned joining the two suites with a connecting staircase.

They hired Kohn Shnier architects to come up with a design that would overcome the hurdles of logistics and condo bylaws.

The house today

After about one year of planning and construction, Mr. Bachir and Mr. Yerex had created a 6,470-square-foot suite.

The two living rooms were joined by a contemporary staircase manufactured in bent steel plate with open risers and mahogany treads.

There were few changes to the identical layouts of the two units, which combined to create a suite with six bedrooms, two kitchens and two dining rooms.

The couple’s daughter spent lots of time in the expanded space, and Mr. Yerex turned one of the bedrooms into a studio.

“It was perfect – I could fill up the walls with art,” says Mr. Bachir, who adds that he has always preferred to arrange the pieces in salon style. “It’s a collection – I do want it to be a feast for the eyes.”

Mr. Bachir kept the existing floors in some rooms and had new marble and granite floor tiles laid in others.

On the lower level, the couple took out a separate breakfast area to create a dining room large enough to accommodate 14 for dinner.

Many times, Mr. Bachir says, his mother took over the kitchen to teach people how to cook Lebanese dishes.

Film director Deepa Mehta, author Salman Rushdie, actor Kim Cattrall and many other luminaries have joined the soirées put together by Mr. Bachir and Mr. Yerex.

Over time, the couple renovated some of the bathrooms and improved their accessibility. Upstairs, they added a walk-in steam shower with two benches.

For several years, Mr. Bachir was a kidney dialysis patient. He turned part of the upper level into an area where he could receive treatment at home and continue to work. The couple went on to help build the Bachir Yerex Dialysis Centre at St. Joseph’s Health Centre.

These days Mr. Bachir and Mr. Yerex are spending more time at their country house in Paris, Ont. As they prepare to leave Toronto, Mr. Bachir imagines the couple’s expansive condo would make a comfortable space for a family – especially one that enjoys entertaining or has multiple generations living together. A couple can also have two home offices, he adds.

Palace Pier provides a fitness centre, year-round swimming pool, golf putting green, valet parking and a restaurant on site. The grounds include barbecue areas for outside gatherings, gardens and walking trails.

The best feature

Mr. Bachir says the vistas from the suite’s large windows are ever changing. He sometimes stands at the window and stares as he takes in the lightning flashing in the distance, snowstorms rolling in from across the lake or mist covering the water.

“It’s like being on the Mediterranean,” he says. “The view works with the art.”

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