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This SF “Kink” Castle Might Become a Jazz Club

109-year-old “castle” could become a two-level jazz club
By - posted 3/10/2023 No Comment

The San Francisco Armory, located at 1800 Mission Street, could become a new jazz club. Thanks to SF Yimby for sharing the details that a project review meeting has been requested to transform the famed “Kink Castle”.

Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the plans shows that the historic exterior will remain unchanged, but the interior will be renovated. The space has sat vacant for years, but was last used as the headquarters for Kink.com’s Armory Studios, the world’s largest producer of BDSM porn. The Armory was purchased in 2006 by Kink.com for an estimated $14.5 million and served as the filming location for many of their fetish videos for a decade. However, they sold the property in 2017 for $65 million.

The current plans show a two-level jazz club, including a dining area, bar, and a new two-level VIP lounge on the 14th Street side of the building.

According to the building’s website, “The National Guard Armory was constructed in 1909 above an underground creek, to ensure besieged National Guardsmen would have drinking water. Its existence is testimony to the concerns of society’s leaders in the early part of this century to maintain armored facilities to keep social peace at a time of widespread class war. The Guard vacated the building in 1976.

The Mission Armory represents a unique combination of revivalist architecture and early 20th century machine age construction. While many of the more utilitarian spaces have simple, durable finishes, the reception stair lobbies, public/recreation rooms, and administration offices display high levels of design and finish materials, including marble, milled oak and walnut paneling.

From 1920s through the 1940s, the Mission Armory served as San Francisco’s primary sports venue, eventually earning the nickname the “Madison Square Garden of the West” bringing in thousands of spectators every week. For almost three decades, at least two prizefights were held in the Production Space each week, usually on Tuesday and Friday nights. Subsequently, in 1976 Noted Director George Lucas used the Production Space to film scenes for the award-winning film, Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back.”

The building’s spacious Drill Court will offer 39,000 square feet of space with bleacher-like seating for the proposed new jazz club.

See more detailed plans on SF Yimby.