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February 16th, 2011, 07:50 PM

The popular local business Maple Leaf Lumber and Building Supply days are numbered. National Post article:

Peter Kuitenbrouwer: Is Dundas West Ready for Eight Storeys?...

Peter Kuitenbrouwer February 15, 2011 – 6:51 pm

http://nationalpostnews.files.wordpress.com/2011/02/0215-lumber2.jpg?w=620Tyler Anderson/National Post
The owners of ML Lumber and Building Supplies want to knock it down and put up an eight-storey condo tower.

For as long as anyone on Dundas Street West can remember, Maple Leaf Lumber, at Dundas and Manning Avenue — now called ML Lumber and Building Supplies — has been selling 2x4s, drywall, gravel and plywood. Tuesday was no different; Mike Pizzi, doing some renovation work in the neighbourhood, backed up his Ram 1500 V8 and two ML employees, Ruben Capitao and Dave Dias, loaded the box with drywall and Roxul fiberglass insulation.

“These guys are really good,” Mr. Pizzi said. “The prices are better than [other building supply stores]. They’re really helpful.”

ML Lumber has a chaotic feel that is somewhat comforting, with the big green ML trucks parked on the Manning sidewalk, and snow still clinging to the big bins of gravel and sand in the side yard. Inside, Mikka, the resident French bulldog, toddles around the aisles, while Jose Agostinho, 67, helps shoppers find supplies ranging from an Estwing hammer, $40.66, to a 4-pack of 60W lightbulbs, $1.37, to electrical tape, 94¢ a roll.

But now Mr. Agostinho has applied to go work at Home Depot; the owners of ML Lumber have applied to the City of Toronto to rezone the site, knock down the venerable building supply yard and put up a 98-unit, eight-storey condo tower, with eight four-storey townhouses on the back end where the lumber warehouse now stands. The building would have 62 underground parking spots. A preliminary report on the rezoning comes to Toronto and East York Community Council on Wednesday.

“I would miss my job,” says Mr. Agostinho. “I would like to stay. I like the business.”

“I don’t mind,” says Mr. Capitao, 20, “because I am going back to school to become an auto mechanic.”

The trendy shopping meccas of Queen and College streets have largely left Dundas alone; across from the lumber yard are Churrasqueira Vila Verde and the Vietnamese, Cambodian and Laotian Community Services Association. Even so, Dundas, where most buildings are one or two storeys high, is rapidly changing, with Black Hoof, a bistro, joining the coffee shop Communal Mule and the brunch spot Saving Grace. Across Manning from the lumber yard, developers have bought the former St. Francis school, and have plans to build 48 townhouses, starting at $900,000.

So it is small wonder that Renato Silva, the chief executive at ML Lumber, wants to cash out. (Mr. Silva was in Portugal Tuesday and unavailable for comment, store staff said.) But is Dundas West ready for eight storeys?

“I think Dundas needs more density,” says Chris Shulgan, who lives at Claremont Avenue and Dundas, and co-chairs the Trinity-Bellwoods Community Association. “However, I think eight storeys is far too high. All the larger buildings on College and Queen streets are on the south side. You are creating more of a shadow on the north side.

“We want this one to be done right,” Mr. Shulgan adds, “because this is a bellwether for the rest of the area.”

Michael Layton, the fresh new councillor for the area — who lives just west of here on Beatrice Avenue, sounds a cautious note, too. “It’s an interesting project,” he says. “The intent is to make it that it’s not a monstrous building towering over the single-family homes,” he says. “That’s what we want to avoid.”

Ken Conner Jr., behind the espresso bar at Caffe Brasiliano, just across Dundas, can see a benefit. “We close at 6 because there’s no business at night,” he says. “Maybe in the next few years when people move in there, we can change the hours to 9 p.m. People might say, ‘Why not come here and have a veal sandwich or a plate of pasta?’”

The current zoning permits builders to go up 16 metres; ML wants to put up a building rising 27 metres. The two sides may compromise, but whatever happens it seems the lumber and the lightbulbs, the bulldog and the friendly staff will have to find a new home.

http://news.nationalpost.com/2011/02/15/peter-kuitenbrouwer-is-dundas-west-ready-for-eight-storeys/#ixzz1E9Hd0KKu