Beaches condo to rise from ashes of six-alarm fire.
"Just over a year ago, it took 100 firefighters and 30 fire trucks more than six hours to douse a blaze that destroyed a residential/commercial building opposite Kew Gardens in the Beaches."
"From the ashes of that fire will rise 12 residential lofts, behind and beside a new street-level storefront called Green House."
"Designer/builder Bob Mitchell got involved in the project because his wife was looking for a new location for her Queen St. gardening business. And voila, in about a year, Bev Mitchell will be moving to her new location."
"Mitchell's partner in the project is property owner Joseph Bordieri. Until the fire, he ran an upholstery business on the site and lived in an apartment above his store."
"'All our belongings were gone,' says Bordieri, who was also forced to find a temporary location for both his business and home."
"But he plans to move back to the Beaches neighbourhood he has called home for years. He plans to make one of the lofts his home and will also move his business to the new building."
"Mitchell describes the project as a modern interpretation of a West Coast look and says it was a design challenge to configure the building so nine of the 12 units overlook the park and the lake.
"'It will have heavy stone banding on the ground floor, but even the upper floors will have a street character,' he adds.
"As for the interiors, whatever the buyer wants, the buyer gets. Want to move the kitchen to the front, the bathroom to the other side? No problem."
"'We customize everything we do,' says Mitchell. 'It gives you unique spaces because you're designing it for yourself.'"
"And he's going to use reinforced concrete to make the building as fireproof and soundproof as possible."
"The two-store units will have 17-foot ceilings in primary living spaces, an interior mezzanine and a walkway to a large, private roof garden. They will come with individual high-efficiency gas furnaces, central air, fireplaces and maple flooring."
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"Mitchell & Associates has been creating new homes in Toronto since 1982, when it designed, developed and built the first legal loft conversion in the former Dominion Felt Co. on Shanly St."
"The firm won the Ontario Renews Award for the project and has since converted factories, churches and other institutional buildings into residential condominiums, including 670 Richmond St. West and 15 Glen Manor Dr."
Site of six-alarm fire in 2000.