The former Kink.com Armory, which Kink moved out of and sold five years ago, is set to return to being a concert and event venue — which it was briefly before the pandemic — but the new owners have also submitted plans to add a jazz club inside.
There were loud rumors back in 2018 that the historic Armory building at 14th and Mission was going to become an SF branch of the Soho House empire — something that Soho House denied at the time. The confusion stemmed from the fact that the new owners who purchased the 200,000-square-foot building from Kink.com, AJ Capital Partners, had a Soho house connection — CEO Benjamin Weprin had been the developer behind Soho House's Chicago property, and AJ Capital Partners had Soho House among its hotel clients.
Now, in March 2023, we finally get some movement on the building by AJ Capital Partners, in the form of a project review meeting that's been set up with the SF Planning Department. As SF YIMBY reports, the proposed project includes interior renovations that would add a new, two-story VIP lounge in the "castle" portion of the building, as well as "venue support" space at the back end of the massive Drill Court space.
The biggest new proposed addition, however, is a new bar and "Jazz Club" space on the first floor, which would be accessible from Mission Street. The floor plan indicates a small "dining area" in the Jazz Club, in addition to a bar, and what looks like a 100-seat venue beside it with a small stage.
Interestingly, getting back to the Soho House vibe, an aerial rendering of the exterior of the building that is perhaps only meant for prospective office tenants includes a roof deck spanning the entire Mission Street section of the building. (The building still has two full floors of potential office space on the third and fourth floors of the "castle," and the plans also include PDR [production, distribution, and repair] space on the second floor.) We were never aware of there being such a furnished roof deck and it's unclear if that was ever created — it's also not part of the new plans that SF YIMBY got ahold of.
A section about building amenities on the Armory's current (possibly outdated) website has a non-working link about said roof deck.
Hilariously, that website has a History page on which there is no mention of Kink.com having used the building for offices and porn production for over a decade.
AJ Capital Partners has made no public statements about their plans for the building, but at least we now know that their intentions include taking advantage of the massive Drill Court as an entertainment venue. But there's no word on when they might let the place come alive again — given these construction plans, it could be a year or so in the future.
Stay tuned as this project takes shape.
Top image: Mike Hoffman/Wikimedia
