SAN FRANCISCO -- Kink.com founder Peter Acworth has leased space in San Francisco's former State Armory and Arsenal building to a lawyer who plans to open a community center on the premises.
The San Francisco Weekly sensationalized the situation last week, reporting that a center for kids was moving next door to the bondage porn studio. Kink.com founder Peter Acworth, who bought the historic building in the Mission District for $14.5 million in 2006 and leases part of the space to his company, called the report "bogus and inflammatory."
Acworth leased additional space in the building to real-estate lawyer David Klein, executive director of the Armory Community Center, which is in the planning stages.
"I have no affiliation with Kink.com," Klein told AVN Online. "I've leased the drill court portion of the building from Peter Acworth with the intention of opening a community center and I'm currently seeking entitlement for it."
The center will serve as a gathering place for "adults, children, families, tourists, religious leaders, everyone," Klein said. "It's a community center in every sense of the word. It's been vacant for 40 years, and having this wonderful building back in regular use benefits everyone."
Klein is trying to attract youth sports leagues to the building because of a shortage of sports fields in San Francisco. This has raised concerns about the center's proximity to Kink.com.
"This is a legitimate concern on the part of families and people who run youth leagues, and it's not a something to be ignored," Klein said. "At the same time, it is an easily addressable issue which I will address, a legitimate concern that will be responded to in accordance with the community's wishes."
Klein plans to create a wall and other partitions as needed, including a separate entrance to the building.
"I would create a physical division between the community center and the Kink.com offices so that neither tenant can go into the other's space," he told AVN Online. "This will completely isolate the center from the Kink.com offices, which, I think, will satisfy the community."
Klein projects the community center will be completed and open in as soon as six months.
Meanwhile, part of his job is assuring the community, which he says is truly in need of such a gathering place.
"There's no connection whatsoever between us and the adult business activities of Kink.com," he said. "I have to just get the word out to the community that they have nothing to fear. When I'm finished, I'd be glad to bring my own children to my own community center."
