A Very Important Announcement
As many have noticed, we have not been ordering stock and stopped taking special orders in the past few months. This is not due to any financial problems for the store as we have heard in the rumor mill lately. The reasons are sadly much more complex than a simple lack of funds.
The Gamers Realm (and its attorney) has been in talks with our landlord for the past several months concerning the store’s non-compliance with city fire safety codes. The violations present are all things which the landlord was responsible for providing during the buildout (before we opened), and according to our lease is still responsible for fixing. We had been unable to get a response from the management company or the landlord on this matter until recently, and they have stated that they will not be taking any action to correct this situation, nor do they intend to perform any improvements or conduct any maintenance as they are negotiating the sale of the property.
All of this means that at any time the fire marshal may come in, forcibly close the store, and assess heavy fines for the violations present. As you can imagine, this only hurts our store since we are the ones who would not only be closed down, but WE would be the ones that would be fined and expected to fix the code violations (as the landlord has no intention of doing so) BEFORE we could reopen. We have spoken with our attorney about the situation, and have discovered that the law is too expensive a remedy for a small company like us, whereas, the landlord and its representatives have ample funds to mount a lengthy and expensive court battle (estimates from the attorney run in the tens of thousands and at least a year or more before getting a judgment.) We are the injured party in this, but sadly justice seems to only be for those with the wealth to buy it.
So what does this mean for The Gamers Realm and our customers?
These issues are forcing The Gamers Realm to close its doors and seek a new location. We will sadly cease operations on August 14th. After this date, we will be working as quickly as possible to secure a new place in the same general area and re-open. Our hope is to re-open in time for Christmas (which is part of our reason for closing so quickly), but this is not guaranteed as we do not currently have a new space chosen or leased and buildout can take 45 day or more. The threat of having to close and move is the simple version for why we chose to stop ordering – special orders then regular merchandise. Be assured that we will be stocked up and taking orders again once we reopen.
We would like to thank our regulars as well as our new customers for their support and hope to provide a new and improved store with a few added surprises as soon as possible.
Regards,
The Owners,
The Gamers Realm
