Industry Arcade is going to keep on doing what it’s been doing – for the foreseeable future.
The arcade was set to cease operations in December because of zoning issues between the city and the property’s landlord. Since the story was reported in the Record, action has been taken that allows Industry Arcade to continue operating in its spaces in the Braid industrial area.
Kyle Seller, who owns the business with his wife Amanda, said the landlord has now signed off on the paperwork Industry Arcade needs to build a bathroom and to get a text amendment to the site’s zoning.
“Those were the two stumbling blocks for us,” he told the Record.
Industry Arcade was a spinoff of Seller’s other company East Van Amusements, which leases arcade machines to restaurants, pubs, the film industry and other businesses for pop-up events.
In June 2020, city council approved a temporary use permit that allowed Kyle and Amanda Seller to operate Industry Arcade in the industrial space that had housed East Van Amusements – part of the city’s efforts to help the business to pivot and survive the COVID-19 pandemic. Because the property at 30 Capilano Way in the Braid industrial area is zoned heavy industrial districts, an arcade is not a permitted use unless the site is rezoned, or a temporary use permit is issued.
Carolyn Armanini, the city’s acting manager of economic development, said Industry Arcade’s existing temporary use permit (TUP) had expired. She noted that a TUP has a maximum term of three years and can only be renewed once by council per the Local Government Act, which had been done in 2022.
According to Armanini, staff in city’s economic development and planning departments have been working with the applicant to transition the commercial aspect of Industry Arcade that the temporary use permit allowed, to a permanent ancillary use under the site’s zoning. To facilitate this, she said planning staff had recommended that the heavy industrial (M-2) zoning of the property be maintained, in alignment with the city’s (and Metro Vancouver’s) official community plan designation and industrial land policies that prioritize the use of industrials for industry uses.
“To enable the commercial operation of the arcade on this site as an ancillary use, a rezoning text amendment would be required,” she said. “This would add a site-specific zoning specification within the M-2 schedule, which would permit amusement arcade facilities to be limited to the existing address of the property. The rezoning application would ultimately be presented to council for their decision.”
Armanini said staff have relayed their support for Industry Arcade continuing to operate in New Westminster, as an industrial user and with an ancillary arcade use, to both Industry Arcade and the building owner.
“Additionally, they know that Industry Arcade’s business license could be renewed for 2025, once an application for the zoning amendment has been received by planning,” she said. “This would allow the arcade to continue operating while the text amendment process occurred.”
Armanini said Industry Arcade’s “pivot during the pandemic is a testament to local business resiliency” and the city was hopeful it could find a workable solution.
Full steam ahead
The Sellers have delivered their paperwork to city hall.
“We have to submit our engineering drawings for the bathroom. That is going to be happening in the new year,” Seller said. “And then we are rocking.”
Industry Arcade will continue to operate in its space at 30 Capilano Way Thursday through Sunday evenings.
“Things aren’t really going to change too much as far as the arcade. We are going to buy a skeeball machine and we are going to do a few other changes with the arcade but nothing too much,” Seller said. “We are just going to keep on doing what we’re doing.”
The couple is grateful for all the people who have supported them through this process.
“It’s wonderful. We have gotten so much support from people through the process,” Seller said. “I feel like it was a community effort to save the establishment.”
Having operated Industry Arcade under a temporary use permit since 2020, Seller said he is looking forward to having the text amendment finalized.
“It’s such a relief. The biggest thing for me is it is such a mental relief to feel that we are going to be legitimate. We have been on this temporary use permit – nothing official; we haven’t been able to build a bathroom,” he said. “We can do everything we want to do now. We are going to finally get that license that we have been hoping for. It feels nice to be safe.”
