For 70 years the builders of North Burnaby could go to Curtis Lumber at Sperling Avenue and Curtis Street for supplies, the family business literally building the community around it.
But for the past year the old Curtis Lumber building - along with another at 840 Sperling Ave. - has been vacant.
When Brian Kask Sr. sold the family business to Canadian hardware company Rona Inc. in 2006, Rona signed a five-year lease on the lots, he said in a phone interview Monday.
"But I guess the owners now of Curtis - they bought Dick's and are running the two companies into each other - probably just don't need that many locations," he said.
After Rona chose not to renew the leases, the family tried to find other options, according to Kask, offering short-term leases to other businesses for a while.
But the business that helped build the residential neighbourhood around Sperling Avenue is now succumbing to the need for housing in Burnaby, according to Kask.
"The bottom line is, it's going to go residential," he said.
The flagship building at the corner of Sperling Avenue and Curtis Street is being demolished and the lot will be developed into five residential lots, Kask said, while the lot north along Sperling Avenue at Union Street will be developed into nine residential lots.
Demolition of both buildings started Monday, though Kask had asbestos removed from the Union Street location prior to that.
Kask, who was calling from Phoenix, Arizona where he spends part of the year with his wife, said Monday was a good day to begin demolition, as the rain in Burnaby would keep the dust down.
But it was a difficult decision for the family, he added.
We have to do what we have to do," he said. "But I hate to see it go."
The flagship location is especially hard to lose, Kask said.
"It's been a marker of the community for longer than I've been alive," he said. Kask was 15 when he borrowed $5,000 from his father to buy a half-interest in the North Burnaby lumberyard.
His family - son Brian Jr. and daughter Debbie - continued to work for Curtis Lumber after it was sold to Rona.
By the time the company was sold in 2006, it had six retail outlets and 156 employees.
In 2005, it reported close to $80 million in sales.
"It made money, it did well," Kask said. "We grew over the years, up to 100 employees."
Rona - which bought another Burnaby family business, Dick's Lumber, in 2007 - plans to keep the South Burnaby Dick's Lumber location on Byrne Road open, according to David Carr, Rona's vicepresident, Western region.
Dick's Lumber was founded by Dick and Delma Alexander in 1964 and had locations in Burnaby and throughout the Lower Mainland.
Rona typically honours any previous lease agreements when acquiring a company or location, Carr said, but some time after acquiring Curtis Lumber, the company decided to merge operations with Dick's Lumber.
There are no current plans for any closures of Rona locations in Burnaby, he added.
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