New Civitan Arena on the Donway?.
The post office, at 169 the Donway West, is up for sale. It is close to the redevelopment of the Don Mills Centre at Don Mills Road and Lawrence Avenue.
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The post office on The Donway could become the new site of the rebuilt Civitan Arena if local councillor Denzil Minnan-Wong gets his way.The post office, located at 169 The Donway West, is up for sale - close to the redevelopment of the Don Mills Centre at Don Mills Road and Lawruence Avenue. Last year, the city and developer Cadillac Fairview agreed to a deal to allow highrise development on the site, in return for $17 million to build a new community centre and $4.5 million going toward locating the Don Mills Civitan Arena elsewhere.The arena will cost more than that - city officials estimate about $20 million - and needs to be finished by 2020, when the existing arena will have to shut down when Cadillac Fairview redevelops the land.But the city hasn't found a site for the arena - and Minnan-Wong said the post office site might be viable. He intends to move a motion at the August North York Community Council asking staff to investigate."What we need to do is investigate whether the site is appropriate for replacing the Don Mills Civitan Arena, which will be demolished in the next few years as the Don Mills residential project goes forward," said Minnan-Wong.He said the site may be too small for a two-pad arena plus requisite parking, at just 1.33 acres. But he hoped it might be possible to negotiate use of nearby parking facilities owned by Cadillac Fairview."There's lots of parking around there," he said. "And if the city were to have to seek an exemption - we could grant ourselves the exemption."The property was assessed at $2.5 million in 2010. Figures obtained by MInnan-Wong's office indicate it might fetch as much as $8.5 million.