Lee Valley Tools permanently closes its last remaining Toronto store

The last store in Toronto for Lee Valley Tools has now permanently closed.

The woodworking and gardening store was located at 1275 Morningside Ave. in Scarborough, and didn't make it to 2022.

"Substantial increases in lease costs has made keeping the store open unsustainable," reads the page for the location on Lee Valley's website.

Though the site goes on to say they "look forward to serving you in our other Toronto store locations," there really aren't any other locations of the store actually in Toronto.

The other closest locations in Ontario are in Vaughan and Burlington, which offer local same-day delivery for the GTA. There are also locations in Windsor, Waterloo, Niagara Falls, Ottawa, Kingston and London.

The site also says the company is continuing to look at opening new locations in Toronto and across Canada.

"The real estate market has been highly disrupted and under tremendous stress putting pressure on landlords and tenants the past 18 months. As a result, we are faced with an unprecedented rent increase and location rationalization," Lee Valley told blogTO in a statement.

"We are disappointed it has come to this given this location's long-standing history and the number of employees and customers this will impact. The Greater Toronto market represents a significant customer base to us and we are still very committed to physical stores."

Lee Valley is a family-owned Canadian business that was founded in 1978 and started out by selling barrel stove kits and woodworking tools. They now sell all kinds of tools and hardware as well as home, garden and kitchen products.

The Scarborough store has been closed since Dec. 24. The downtown King West store shuttered last year.

You can still shop at Lee Valley online.