The jig is up at the Tenderloin's Empire Relaxation Spa, which has been busted at least four times for selling sex, and now has been shut down permanently with the owners agreeing to pay a $275,000 settlement.
A Tuesday afternoon KPIX report details there has been a great deal of shady business going down for at least the last six years at a Tenderloin massage parlor known as Empire Relaxation Spa. The place was originally busted for offering sex-for-cash to an undercover police officer in May 2019, after which SF DPH revoked their massage license. The department then found they were still continuing that practice.
A customer filed a police report in 2024 over an employee who was determined to tug at his genitals, and SF City Attorney David Chiu ordered the place closed in March 2025 after another SF DPH inspection found the place to be operating, well, more or less as a brothel.
In the words of Chiu’s office, “a DPH decoy entered the business and observed a room of women in lingerie. One woman offered to allow the decoy to massage her while she made sexually suggestive hand gestures.”
The place has been in Chiu’s crosshairs for quite some time, but now the Chronicle reports that the city has successfully shut down Empire Relaxation Spa, and for good measure, secured a $275,000 settlement to ensure that owner Ricky Lee does not let the place fall back on its old tricks.
“Empire Relaxation Spa was blatantly operating as a brothel, and was an ongoing nuisance for the surrounding community,” Chiu said in a Tuesday press release. “The conditions in the facility were unsettling due to various health and safety violations, and it was apparent that sex workers were living in those conditions. The business and property owners ignored numerous notices of violations from City departments. I’m glad this illegal business with its countless health and safety issues is no longer operating, and the owners will be held accountable.”
We mentioned that the owners agreed to pay a $275,000 settlement, though that is actually two settlements. KPIX has the detail that the business owner Ricky Lee is paying a $200,000 fine, while building owners Deborah and Richard Bocci are paying $75,000. Lee agrees to stay out of the massage or personal services business sector in California for at least the next 10 years, and the Boccis agree to not use the property as a massage or spa business for 10 years, and to abate the remaining code violations at the property.
Image: Jordan T via Yelp
