Black Lotus Academy of Martial Arts & Fitness owner Nic Langman has decided to permanently close the doors at their Kitchener Street home.
“I just spent almost a decade of my life sacrificing everything for Black Lotus and the community and I got the rug pulled out from under me,” Langman said.
COVID-19 restrictions from the Ontario Government and public health officials have meant facilities like Black Lotus have been closed for almost three months. In the case of the popular kickboxing academy, that has driven them out of business, Langman says.
“If exercise is not considered essential we have a problem - a much bigger problem if they say alcohol and McDonald’s are essential,” Langman said with frustration.
Langman says after previously receiving a letter from the mayor’s office stating how important Black Lotus is to the community, he decided to turn to city officials for help during their financial crisis. Langman was directed to apply for the province's small business loan.
“That’s why we had to pull the plug: There is no help for the small business, there’s no help for the little guy," Langman said.
"I’m a little martial arts studio that helps people cope with life. If that’s not good enough to get bailed out than we have a problem in our society."
Langman refuses to use any loan from the provincial government to try and keep Black Lotus afloat.
“The idea of loaning us money in a crisis so we can pay taxes while we are forcibly confined from working towards paying those very taxes is as wrong as things can get ethically,” he said.
Over the past eight years, Langman says he has invested every penny that the dojo has ever produced back into the business. He also recently remortgaged his home to pay off the remaining debt that the gym had.
“I felt the debt was holding us back from having our best year yet. I wouldn’t have remortgaged my home if I thought I wasn’t going to be successful in paying that back,” Langman explained.
Letting go of the business was admittedly one of the hardest things Langman has ever done. However, he insists the decision was necessary.
“If it hadn’t been done, Black Lotus would have eventually failed, and been gone forever. This decision was made so Black Lotus could come back,” he explained.
“With the cost of the taxes and the overhead at the facility we had, we would have perished for sure if we tried to hold on and stick this thing out."
Langman says the repercussions of the provincial and federal governments' decisions during the pandemic are going to affect when Black Lotus is able to return to the community.
“I fully anticipate finding a way to come back after recovering from the losses of closing. I want people to have hope that we are not lost, we are not gone,” he said.
For now, Langman will find other ways to reach his 200 students left without a dojo. He said he plans to build an online presence as well as potentially conducting workshops once restrictions on contact sports are loosened.
