A Burlington community is without a space to gather, as renovations and permitting purgatory have left them in limbo for nearly six months.
Torchlight Games and Hobbies, a gaming and hobby store that sells tabletop miniatures for games such as Warhammer 40,000, Conquest, and Dungeons and Dragons, moved into a new location on Harrington Court at the end of April. They have remained closed to the public as they await permits to build a firewall, and install fire resistant roofing materials in the building, which they share with Cladco Limited, which does metal working.
“The first thing we needed to do was get a zoning clearance,” David Guo, co-owner of Torchlight said. “This is an industrial zoning, and we had to clear it for recreation, which is allowed in the bylaws. The architects estimated it would take around two weeks based on their previous experiences.”
The process took more than a month, but it did get done. Weeks of back and forth with the city, changing single words on documents, led to them getting cleared. However, more delays soon followed as they wanted to start building.
“The building is owned by Cladco, they have their own shop over there and we need to build firewalls – because they’re industrial and we’re recreational,” Guo said. “There are safety concerns there that we absolutely agree with.”
The wall is to be built behind offices, nowhere customers would potentially go. Additional renovations include patching up a separate firewall with doors for forklifts to pass through between Torchlight and Cladco, and to spray foam fire prevention in the ceiling between the two businesses. The space near the future firewall is expected to be used as a small shipping space, and a fire exit is also planned to be installed.
The two owners, Guo and Will Hayward, have been in contact with the city’s manager of building permits, Dio Ortiz, who declined speaking with BurlingtonToday, but sent a statement through a city communications advisor.
“The City can confirm a complete building permit application was received and accepted on July 17,” the statement reads. “The application is currently under review and the City is working directly with the property owner’s designers to ensure that all requirements of their building permit application are fulfilled as soon as possible.”
The owners said they were told by Ortiz the city has until August 16 to respond. The city also changed the price requirements for the permit - an increase of nearly 50 per cent.
When Guo and Hayward first applied, the city told them the application would cost approximately $13,000, with an additional $7,500 for expedited processing, though it was not clear what that meant.
“This portion of the property is around 1,000 square metres, and that’s the price they were charging for us to build one wall and spray the ceiling,” Guo said. “We went to our architect, and worked out how much it should be based on their own bylaws. I told them, based on your own bylaws, you should only be charging for rooms that are adjacent to construction.”
Guo added when he went back with the rebuttal, the application price dropped to less than $7,000, and the expedited fee was closer to $3,000. The owners paid for the application, but since they have been closed for so long they cannot afford the expedited fee.
When asked how the city could reduce that number by approximately half, Ortiz said the city has bylaw provisions that enable it to give consideration to fees, to review, and adjust when classifications can be applied. It’s not clear why the fee was so high originally.
In total, the owners estimate they’ve spent around $80,000 since moving in April, and have not had a customer through the doors yet.
“We are the only operation in Burlington, especially of this scale, with this many people who attend,” Guo said. “There is no replacement, especially in the summer, because this acts as a community centre for people.”
The owners said they first submitted their application on June 6, and it was denied on June 14 as the city would not accept their architect’s drawings. Hayward said the city told them to hire a different engineer outside of their chosen firm.
Architect Cynthia Zahoruk said the permit process in Burlington is unusually long.
“They’re waiting on a building permit, which has different aspects of building,” Zahoruk said. “You have health and safety, HVAC, it’s different reviewers at city hall and you have to wait until each of them is finished because one aspect may have consequences for the other. When we submit the application again, it gets sent to the bottom of the pile. It should only take five minutes for them to review, but in three weeks they’ll have to refresh their memory again.”
Zahoruk added she can get a zoning review in Hamilton in three weeks at most.
The finished space is expected to have room for more than 100 people to play their games together at a time, dedicated spaces for painting the figures used in the tabletop games, and even a studio for classes on how to airbrush.
The community aspect is something the owners are aware of. For many, these games are a social outing as much as a collectable or competitive hobby.
“As hobbyists, we’re a bunch of nerds,” customer Rolo Tecson said. “We like to have community and connection, especially since the pandemic. Torchlight has been our community.”
The shop still operates an online store, but the owners said the orders only provide a fraction of the revenue that an in-person sale would.
“Overall revenue is down about 70 per cent,” Guo said. “Out of the sales we do make, it costs us more to fulfill those orders because online requires shipping. Effectively we’re making about 15 per cent of the money we would expect to make if we were open.”
The original Torchlight opened in 2018, with a space of around 1,000 square feet. That spot only stayed for about a year before the property was sold and the company relocated to the plaza at New and Walkers – which was four times larger. When their lease ended at the second shop after three years, the owners were looking to expand already, saying the timing worked out for them in that regard.
Since customers are not allowed inside, Torchlight is offering fans the opportunity to play in the parking lot – under tents – to get people back together. The outdoor games run 5 - 8 p.m. on weekdays, and noon - 6 p.m. on weekends, weather permitting.
