Is it blasphemous — or humorous?

“Praise the loft,” reads a slogan on a tall sign erected outside a church-turned-lofts development that leaves some Junction Triangle residents in a righteous anger.

Daniel Masih is calling for developers to remove the sign from the Union Lofts construction site and to strip the slogan from their website. He started a petition two weeks ago. It now has 33 signatures, he said.

The slogan is “in bad taste,” said Masih, calling it “blasphemous.”

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Masih, who grew up Catholic in the area, said his mother alerted him to the sign earlier this month.

“It made my mom very upset and I couldn’t live with myself if I didn’t do something,” he said. “If I was the marketing person for that I would definitely be ashamed.”

The project by Windmill Development Group, Cornerstone Lofts Ltd. and One Development is on the corner of Perth and Wallace Aves., an increasingly gentrified neighbourhood.

“It’s a pun. It’s a joke,” said Alex Speigel, head of Windmill Development Group’s Toronto office. “I think people should lighten up.”

What do you think?

He said no one involved in the project is anti-religious and the slogan is not blasphemous. It and another — “prepare to be converted” — are a “whimsical reference” to the structure’s history as a church.

Speigel was surprised by the timing of Masih’s complaint, which wasn’t made until two years after the sign went up and six months into construction.

“It was kind of strange that two years goes by and then all of a sudden we hear about it,” he said.

Speigel said he has not been contacted by Masih. He said he would welcome a conversation but there are no plans to change the slogan.

Masih said he spoke to someone at Windmill and was told the builders would not take down the sign.

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None of the residents the Star spoke to in the neighbourhood said they felt personally offended by the sign. Some did, however, did some acknowledge it could be interpreted negatively.

“Maybe it’s offensive to people that go to church,” said Ailan Miraglia, 18. “I don’t really have a reason to be against it.”

Miraglia said people in the neighbourhood — which is attracting young families and young professionals as housing prices soar closer to downtown — were happy to see the loft conversion. Previously, many of the church’s congregants came from outside the neighbourhood and would take up scarce street parking, he said. “It makes the area look nicer.”

Hanna Song, who lives across the street from the lofts, said the slogan didn’t bother her — but she still preferred the old church.

Other neighbours had no use for Masih’s petition.

“It just seems a bit extreme that someone can’t make a play in a gentle way,” said Kevin Putnam. “I think God probably has a sense of humour. I don’t think He would be offended by that.”

Ward 18 councillor Ana Bailao said Masih spoke to her office last week but there is little the city can do.

“The city does not control (a developer’s) marketing materials,” she said. “The reality is we at the city don’t really have the mechanisms to deal with (instances) when somebody doesn’t like the marketing.”

Bailao said the city advises developers to research the areas where they intended to build. In this case, there is a Catholic school near the development and a “significant number” of the area residents are Catholic, she said.

Masih is the only person who has approached Bailao’s office about the wording, she said.

The church, a heritage site, was built in the early 1900s as the Perth Avenue Methodist Church.

Speigel said the developers are working “painstakingly” to restore the shell of the church and made “huge efforts” to design the project with the community in mind.

Residents are expected to move into the 43 lofts as early as this summer.