Golden girl buys first home in Forest Hill

Sarah Nurse will put down roots in highrise condo at South Forest Hill Residences

Canadian hockey player Sarah Nurse has racked up some impressive milestones in her life: winning silver and Olympic gold medals; becoming the first black female hockey player at the Olympics; being the first woman to appear on the cover of ice hockey simulation video game NHL 23 (with centre Trevor Zegras of the NHL’s Anaheim Ducks), and having a limited-edition Barbie doll, modelled on her with the goal of inspiring girls to reach their full potential.

But she’s never owned her own place.

Until now. Nurse, who helped Team Canada claim hockey gold at the 2022 Beijing Olympics and set a record with 18 points for a single Olympic tournament, has signed a deal to buy her first home at South Forest Hill Residences.

According to Toronto Real Estate Board and Altus data, the residences, developed by Parallax and Westdale Properties, will be the first new highrise condo project in South Forest Hill in more than 30 years.

Nurse, who was born and raised in Hamilton, will be playing for Canada at the Women’s World Championship in Brampton in April and hopes to take part in the 2026 Winter Olympics in Italy.

“I love Toronto. I love the Forest Hill area,” she says. “I love being downtown, and Forest Hill is close to downtown, but has a suburban feel with families. That’s what appealed to me the most: The fact that I can get to downtown easily and be in thick of it, yet (be) a little bit removed, is attractive.”

Nurse plans to have a family of her own in the future and the highly walkable neighbourhood accommodates that, as it has shopping, services, parks, trails and three prestigious private schools.

She likes that the building won’t be ready for occupancy until 2026 or 2027, so she can focus on the next Olympics before she moves in.

“As I look down the line, I wanted a unit that suited my needs,” she says. “The Forest Hill vibe is really cool.” She says the location is at the midpoint between the 401 and the Gardiner Expressway, making it easy for her to visit her parents in Hamilton.

The condo site is in the heart of a neighbourhood, not on an arterial road or in an area transitioning from commercial or industrial use to residential. It’s surrounded by tree-lined streets and multimilliondollar homes, steps from all the boutique shops, cafés and amenities of Forest Hill Village. It’s 150 metres from an entrance to the St. Clair West subway station and close to four streetcar routes on St. Clair Ave.

“When we first identified the site, people thought we were crazy to call it a site,” says Stafford Lawson, Parallax principal. “It was a collection of 15 houses we had to assemble.”

The challenge of assembling the property and achieving zoning for the property was worth it, says Lawson, as the developers saw “an incredibly unique opportunity” to create a development nestled within the Forest Hill community that embodies the characteristics that attract people to purchase some of the most expensive houses in the country.

The amenities will be five-star standard, Lawson says, with 24hour concierge, a dramatic twostorey lobby, extensive fitness and wellness facilities, a children’s playroom and a rooftop terrace.

Nurse says the state-of-the-art fitness studio is an amenity she appreciates. “I take athletics seriously and like to work out.”

Initially, the project was to have 470 suites, but Lawson says they received many requests for suites that could be combined and expanded. “We said: ‘Let’s take what we have learned, what the market has

told us and move the suites around.’ The building will now have 417 suites with some floors dedicated to larger suites. We’ve seen terrific uptake.”

There are two suite offerings: the Signature Collection, starting in the $700,000s, and the Crown Collection, which has larger, more luxurious units, which are priced from $1.8 million.

“This project speaks to different groups who live there now or aspire to live there,” says Shab Rajabzadeh, president and co-founder of Cornerstone Marketing Realty, broker for the project.

“They think ‘I can pay downtown pricing or I can be in Forest Hill, one subway stop from the University of Toronto or Yorkdale Mall.’ The convenience factor is superior.

“Everyone looks at this neighbourhood as the crown jewel of a city.”

Nurse looks forwards to meeting her future neighbours and to putting her own stamp on her suite. (She says she likes modern style, clean lines and pops of colour).

“I have a lot of stuff that’s taking up space at my parents’ house that I’ll bring.

“I’ll take my special and most prized things. Definitely my medals and I have champion rings (from when she played NCAA hockey with the Wisconsin Badgers women’s hockey team of the Western Collegiate Hockey Association). I have some jerseys that are special to me too.”