All i can say is that it is amazing how in a city that is supposed to be ahead of the game with sex..there is all this debate!
First some humor from the chronicle:
Wall Street Journal
By VAUHINI VARA;February 7, 2007; Page A1; wsj.com
SAN FRANCISCO -- When the National Guard left this
city's historic State Armory and Arsenal building in
1975, the big Moorish castle fell into disrepair.
Today, it has a controversial new lease on life.
Over the years, developers suggested turning the
1914 building, which is a mile from City Hall on the
edge of the Mission District, into a church, storage
space or an apartment complex. But proposals kept
getting shot down, many of them falling victim to
the city's powerful Planning Department and a
thicket of zoning rules. Developers joked that the
200,000-square-foot Armory, which is on the National
Register of Historic Places, was cursed.
San Francisco's Armory building, abandoned for more
than 30 years, is now home to a pornographic movie
studio.
It turns out there was an easy way to preserve the
Armory that doesn't run afoul of San Francisco's
planners: make pornography there. In December, Peter
Acworth, chief executive of the Internet porn
company Kink.com, bought the landmark building for
$14.5 million. Last week, Kink began shooting
bondage films at the site, and the Planning
Department doesn't have a problem with that.
Mr. Acworth says city officials were especially
pleased that he planned to use the Armory as is,
without making big changes to its interior. That
way, he didn't have to go before San Francisco's
Landmarks Board for approval. In fact, the
building's very details -- the dungeon-like boiler
room, shadowy rifle range and wet basement --
appealed to Mr. Acworth.
"It's an authentic castle, whereas we had been
building fake castles all this time" for our films,
Mr. Acworth says.
The Armory is also zoned for "heavy commercial" use.
Real-estate developers need special permission to
build, say, condos or a church. Making films -- even
dirty movies -- is OK. Tim Frye, a city planner who
helps oversee the Mission neighborhood, says he
found no reason to block the sale of the Armory to
Kink. "Film production is a very sympathetic use" of
the building, he says. "What happens in there is a
private matter."
Heated Debate
Mr. Acworth's fait accompli has now sparked a heated
debate over San Francisco's real-estate planning
maze. Developers complain that outdated rules make
it a nightmare for mainstream businesses to build in
the most desirable parts of the city. Nonprofit
groups gripe that planners are so focused on
economic growth that the city sacrifices affordable
housing. Some merchants say San Francisco's
government cares only about its wealthier
neighborhoods and lets just about anyone enter the
Mission, a formerly low-income area that has lately
filled with bars, restaurants and young hipster
residents. Mission District activists are planning a
protest this week.
Dark rooms and vast space at the San Francisco Armory
appealed to PeterAcworth, CEO of Kink.com, who bought
the building for $14.5 million. WSJ's Vauhini Vara spoke
with Acworth at the Armory on the first day of filming
video for the site.
The flap has drawn in the mayor, Gavin Newsom. Last
week, Mr. Newsom announced plans to hold a community
meeting to discuss use of the Armory and revisit
city-planning rules. "I'm not going to moralize it,
but I don't think this is the appropriate place" for
a porn film studio, says the mayor, who recently
admitted to having an affair with his re-election
campaign manager's wife. "This is a city with a
housing crisis, and now here we are with an adult
studio near schools?"
Since 1975, the Armory has changed hands a number of
times as development proposals have come and gone.
The building has become dilapidated, with broken
windows and rusted bathroom fixtures. A stream --
once meant to provide a water supply for soldiers
trapped in the building -- runs through the
basement. Graffiti mars the red-brick façade.
Former suitors took it all in and saw a massive
renovation project. Mr. Acworth saw the perfect
backdrop for Kink's hardcore videos. The 36-year-old
Englishman says he had been studying for a graduate
degree in finance in 1997 when he decided to drop
out, move to San Francisco and start filming risqué
videos in his apartment. In 1999, he launched
CyberNet Entertainment LLC, which later became Kink.
By last year, the company had $20 million in annual
revenue, Mr. Acworth says, and nearly 70 employees,
and it needed new digs.
Mr. Acworth, who was introduced to the Armory by a
movie location scout in 2005, was immediately
inspired by the building's size, winding stone
staircases and marble columns. He kept in touch with
the building's owner, a company run by businessman
Kelly Ng. He had tried to sell the Armory several
times but to no avail, and his own two-year effort
to convert it to condominium apartments kept hitting
roadblocks. In November, Mr. Acworth entered talks
to buy the Armory. His lawyer sent a letter to a
city planning official named Larry Badiner, stating
that Kink intended to use the Armory to make
"independent films and NC-17 rated films." NC-17 is
the designation given to X-rated movies, denying
admission to anyone under the age of 17.
In January, Mr. Badiner responded, saying the
proposed use seemed just fine. The zoning official
says he didn't notice the wording about NC-17 films.
"Frankly, I kind of missed that," he says.
Still, Mr. Badiner and other officials who signed
off on the plan say it's hard to imagine a better
proposal than this one. Amit Ghosh, director of the
city's Planning Department, has publicly said, "The
planning code...is not really worried with moral
propriety."
Mr. Acworth says he was surprised things went so
smoothly for Kink at the Planning Department. "It's
kind of funny that it's porn that has got everyone
thinking" about how the planning rules should
change, he adds.
Mr. Acworth says he plans to rent some space in the
Armory to mainstream film producers, and that he
will use the building to shoot his own features.
Among the film ideas floated by his employees:
shooting a naked-paintball scene, suspending women
from the 65-foot-ceiling of the building's onetime
drill court and using the dark, underground hallways
to make zombie movies.
First Shoot
On a recent afternoon, he and a small film crew got
ready for their first shoot in the building, on a
balcony above the drill court where officers once
practiced marching. A model wearing a bathrobe stood
above a row of suggestive props and asked, "Is my
hair OK?" Mr. Acworth says there was no plot to the
movie.
Mr. Acworth said he had been thinking of hoisting a
flag with Kink's logo -- a K with a devil's tail --
on the roof. But when a neighbor asked about the
"dark spirits" Mr. Acworth was bringing to the
neighborhood, he changed his mind. To curry favor
with neighbors, he plans to use parts of the Armory
for community activities, like internship programs
-- in film production, not porn, he says. He plans
to fix the windows and get rid of the graffiti.
Mr. Acworth hopes the current uproar will quickly
subside. One tip from the lobbyist he hired to help
him promote Kink's cause: Don't say anything bad
about the mayor. "I'm sure Gavin's a decent enough
bloke," Mr. Acworth says of Mr. Newsom, but when it
comes to Kink's Armory purchase, he adds, "I don't
think there's anything he can do about it." Mr.
Newsom's response: "You don't enter into a community
with opposition in the mayor's office." He warns
that if Mr. Acworth rubs people the wrong way,
"there could be future roadblocks."
for those wanting to see all the back and forth.. check out http://www.kink.com/press.php
First some humor from the chronicle:
Wall Street Journal
By VAUHINI VARA;February 7, 2007; Page A1; wsj.com
SAN FRANCISCO -- When the National Guard left this
city's historic State Armory and Arsenal building in
1975, the big Moorish castle fell into disrepair.
Today, it has a controversial new lease on life.
Over the years, developers suggested turning the
1914 building, which is a mile from City Hall on the
edge of the Mission District, into a church, storage
space or an apartment complex. But proposals kept
getting shot down, many of them falling victim to
the city's powerful Planning Department and a
thicket of zoning rules. Developers joked that the
200,000-square-foot Armory, which is on the National
Register of Historic Places, was cursed.
San Francisco's Armory building, abandoned for more
than 30 years, is now home to a pornographic movie
studio.
It turns out there was an easy way to preserve the
Armory that doesn't run afoul of San Francisco's
planners: make pornography there. In December, Peter
Acworth, chief executive of the Internet porn
company Kink.com, bought the landmark building for
$14.5 million. Last week, Kink began shooting
bondage films at the site, and the Planning
Department doesn't have a problem with that.
Mr. Acworth says city officials were especially
pleased that he planned to use the Armory as is,
without making big changes to its interior. That
way, he didn't have to go before San Francisco's
Landmarks Board for approval. In fact, the
building's very details -- the dungeon-like boiler
room, shadowy rifle range and wet basement --
appealed to Mr. Acworth.
"It's an authentic castle, whereas we had been
building fake castles all this time" for our films,
Mr. Acworth says.
The Armory is also zoned for "heavy commercial" use.
Real-estate developers need special permission to
build, say, condos or a church. Making films -- even
dirty movies -- is OK. Tim Frye, a city planner who
helps oversee the Mission neighborhood, says he
found no reason to block the sale of the Armory to
Kink. "Film production is a very sympathetic use" of
the building, he says. "What happens in there is a
private matter."
Heated Debate
Mr. Acworth's fait accompli has now sparked a heated
debate over San Francisco's real-estate planning
maze. Developers complain that outdated rules make
it a nightmare for mainstream businesses to build in
the most desirable parts of the city. Nonprofit
groups gripe that planners are so focused on
economic growth that the city sacrifices affordable
housing. Some merchants say San Francisco's
government cares only about its wealthier
neighborhoods and lets just about anyone enter the
Mission, a formerly low-income area that has lately
filled with bars, restaurants and young hipster
residents. Mission District activists are planning a
protest this week.
Dark rooms and vast space at the San Francisco Armory
appealed to PeterAcworth, CEO of Kink.com, who bought
the building for $14.5 million. WSJ's Vauhini Vara spoke
with Acworth at the Armory on the first day of filming
video for the site.
The flap has drawn in the mayor, Gavin Newsom. Last
week, Mr. Newsom announced plans to hold a community
meeting to discuss use of the Armory and revisit
city-planning rules. "I'm not going to moralize it,
but I don't think this is the appropriate place" for
a porn film studio, says the mayor, who recently
admitted to having an affair with his re-election
campaign manager's wife. "This is a city with a
housing crisis, and now here we are with an adult
studio near schools?"
Since 1975, the Armory has changed hands a number of
times as development proposals have come and gone.
The building has become dilapidated, with broken
windows and rusted bathroom fixtures. A stream --
once meant to provide a water supply for soldiers
trapped in the building -- runs through the
basement. Graffiti mars the red-brick façade.
Former suitors took it all in and saw a massive
renovation project. Mr. Acworth saw the perfect
backdrop for Kink's hardcore videos. The 36-year-old
Englishman says he had been studying for a graduate
degree in finance in 1997 when he decided to drop
out, move to San Francisco and start filming risqué
videos in his apartment. In 1999, he launched
CyberNet Entertainment LLC, which later became Kink.
By last year, the company had $20 million in annual
revenue, Mr. Acworth says, and nearly 70 employees,
and it needed new digs.
Mr. Acworth, who was introduced to the Armory by a
movie location scout in 2005, was immediately
inspired by the building's size, winding stone
staircases and marble columns. He kept in touch with
the building's owner, a company run by businessman
Kelly Ng. He had tried to sell the Armory several
times but to no avail, and his own two-year effort
to convert it to condominium apartments kept hitting
roadblocks. In November, Mr. Acworth entered talks
to buy the Armory. His lawyer sent a letter to a
city planning official named Larry Badiner, stating
that Kink intended to use the Armory to make
"independent films and NC-17 rated films." NC-17 is
the designation given to X-rated movies, denying
admission to anyone under the age of 17.
In January, Mr. Badiner responded, saying the
proposed use seemed just fine. The zoning official
says he didn't notice the wording about NC-17 films.
"Frankly, I kind of missed that," he says.
Still, Mr. Badiner and other officials who signed
off on the plan say it's hard to imagine a better
proposal than this one. Amit Ghosh, director of the
city's Planning Department, has publicly said, "The
planning code...is not really worried with moral
propriety."
Mr. Acworth says he was surprised things went so
smoothly for Kink at the Planning Department. "It's
kind of funny that it's porn that has got everyone
thinking" about how the planning rules should
change, he adds.
Mr. Acworth says he plans to rent some space in the
Armory to mainstream film producers, and that he
will use the building to shoot his own features.
Among the film ideas floated by his employees:
shooting a naked-paintball scene, suspending women
from the 65-foot-ceiling of the building's onetime
drill court and using the dark, underground hallways
to make zombie movies.
First Shoot
On a recent afternoon, he and a small film crew got
ready for their first shoot in the building, on a
balcony above the drill court where officers once
practiced marching. A model wearing a bathrobe stood
above a row of suggestive props and asked, "Is my
hair OK?" Mr. Acworth says there was no plot to the
movie.
Mr. Acworth said he had been thinking of hoisting a
flag with Kink's logo -- a K with a devil's tail --
on the roof. But when a neighbor asked about the
"dark spirits" Mr. Acworth was bringing to the
neighborhood, he changed his mind. To curry favor
with neighbors, he plans to use parts of the Armory
for community activities, like internship programs
-- in film production, not porn, he says. He plans
to fix the windows and get rid of the graffiti.
Mr. Acworth hopes the current uproar will quickly
subside. One tip from the lobbyist he hired to help
him promote Kink's cause: Don't say anything bad
about the mayor. "I'm sure Gavin's a decent enough
bloke," Mr. Acworth says of Mr. Newsom, but when it
comes to Kink's Armory purchase, he adds, "I don't
think there's anything he can do about it." Mr.
Newsom's response: "You don't enter into a community
with opposition in the mayor's office." He warns
that if Mr. Acworth rubs people the wrong way,
"there could be future roadblocks."
for those wanting to see all the back and forth.. check out http://www.kink.com/press.php
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