Minto One80Five

Love living here!! Pricy, but Beautiful view, great location, great customer service, very clean and convenient. There’s pool, sauna and gym! Theres a pool table and working spaces and conference rooms on the second floor. There’s a 24 hour convenience store, Rexall, pizza, shawarma, Canada post, wine shop, flower shop, subway… etc downstairs where you don’t even have to leave the building to get to. Cleaning (weekly) is included. Beautiful and spacious units! Fast elevators! In unit laundry and dryer. Also dish washer. Overall amazing!

Suites are nice but not super fancy. I have one of two hypoallergenic suites with hardwood floors and newer furniture. Lobby and common areas are great. Building has many conveniences including a good restaurant, gym with pool, grocery store, drug store, dry cleaner, food court (during the day only) and coffee shop. Even a single vineyard wine store and flower shop. If you get snowed in, you're covered! Its also pretty convenient to downtown areas including bank street and parliament. I would have given it 4.5 starts if I could have.

The Minto Suite made our move to Ottawa less stressful as we searched for a permanent home.

As a newcomer to Ottawa this place has been amazing. It's a great location, friendly staff who actually care about you and want to help, plus the amenities, and access to so many other services (post office, pharmacy, convenience store, dentist, etc.) make this place a great fit for anyone looking for a place to call home.

Apartment is ok in a vacuum but bad for this price. They will often accidentally turn on the fire alarm or P.A. system just to make some grunts or "uhh"s into it before turning it off again. It genuinely, bafflingly, feels like they don't really know how their own systems work. I don't often hear noise from neighbors so that's nice; but the fire alarms are constant, multiple a week which leads to people not evacuating. Lastly, for two weeks in the spring and two weeks in the fall the apartment rises to 30-35deg C when they attempt to penny-pinch by disallowing use of the AC within the apartments. Upon asking the front desk what could be done about my 32 deg apartment, they told me that 32 degrees Celsius "Really isn't that hot", suggested I open the windows, and told me a staff member would be up to check it out; this mysterious staff member never came. Upon telling management that I work from home, and two weeks at >30deg is unacceptable, they suggested that I close the blinds and open the windows. I was already doing this, but even so the blinds are see-through and the windows open approximately 4 inches so this does nothing to cool the apartment. I resorted to propping my front door open and placing a fan in the hallway to move the cool hallway air into my 32 deg apartment. This 1-bedroom apartment costs $1891 a month, and they're doing a rent hike in the near future. When asked if we could get the AC on sooner they said there was nothing they could do. When asking them what their plans for next year are in order to avoid this happening again they did not respond to me. I'm currently apartment hunting.

I have lived here for the past year in a 1-bedroom furnished suite while working a term government job nearby. Overall, I would say this is a very good place to live. There are a few small areas for improvement, and it *is* pricey, but I have enjoyed it, and would recommend it. I’ll start with the positives. It is a great building. It has thick walls (which means you don’t hear your neighbours), lightning fast elevators (and plenty of them), and if you’re high enough up & west facing, the view can’t be beat. It has fantastic amenities, with one of the best gyms available in downtown Ottawa, amazing concierge staff (special shout out to Andrew), and so many useful convenient stores located beneath you in Minto Place. The 24-hour corner store is awesome for last-minute things you realize you are out of, but I’d advise against shopping there too often as it is rather pricey (but that is a reasonable tradeoff for the convenience). The location is obviously also great, as you are a few blocks from everything in downtown Ottawa. The suites themselves (mine is one of the furnished units) are well laid out, and reasonably spacious for downtown living. The furniture in the furnished units is high quality and tasteful (think EQ3-style). Each apartment has the basics (washer/dryer, dishwasher, fridge, microwave), which has been nice. The building is really pet-friendly, and it seems everyone has a pet; even though I don’t have one, it’s always pleasant to see them. Finally, though renting from a ‘big company’ like Minto often concerns some people, in my experience, it has meant that there has been fast, attentive, and professional responses to the majority of my needs (e.g. a broken tap, WiFi issues, etc.). As for the negatives, I only have a few. When I first moved in, they moved me into the wrong apartment (i.e. a different one that I had requested/been told I had), and it took a few months to sort that out. It wasn’t a huge deal, as the unit I was temporarily in was nice, but still worth noting and ensuring that you get the unit you are promised. There was also a bit of a debacle about the AC this spring, as the building turns the AC & heating on/off at pre-determined points in the year, without much flexibility. This is unfortunate, and drew the ire of residents during a heat wave this spring when many of our apartments hit the mid-30s Celsius (which is rather unlivable). This isn’t entirely their fault, as these things happen and they did end up taking measures to turn the AC on sooner than usual (and, ironically, just before things have started to cool down for a bit now, further illustrating the unpredictability of these things). Something similar happened in October when the heat was turned on and there was a bit of a heat wave. That said, these things happen, and when the AC or heat are on at appropriate times, they work very well. Finally, there is a lot of noisy construction going on nearby, starting at 7 AM on most weekdays and occasionally on weekends. This is – largely – unavoidable if you are going to live in downtown Ottawa, and it is certainly outside of Minto’s control, but it is worth noting for a potential resident who may, for instance, work night shifts or something along those lines. Overall, I have enjoyed living here, and if I found myself in Ottawa again, I would happily live here. It is, as noted, pricey, and you may be able to find a cheaper apartment that checks most of your boxes. This is not a perfect place to live, but it most certainly is a good one. The concierge staff, amenities, and location are worth the price, in my view. I hope this review is helpful to someone!

I have been at 185 Lyon Street North for 5 months, due to a major flood at my condo, and have felt at home. From the staff, dog friendly environment and clean building I would highly recommend this building for anyone in the market for a great rental unit. 5 stars Minto!

Enjoying my stay at Minto One80Five! Have been here for over a year, and everything is great. The location, service, Pool and Fitness Centre, and concierge team are all excellent. Highly recommend.