San Francisco's Planning Commission was set to vote Thursday on permits for Sanctum Baths, a proposed gay bathhouse at 40 12th Street near Van Ness Avenue and Market Street. City planners recommended approval, the Bay Area Reporter reported.
Ashbury General Contracting & Engineering CEO Kevin Born announced the plan during Pride Month last year to convert his company's former headquarters. The project was initially called The Maze. The Bay Area Reporter said it would be the first bathhouse to reopen in the city since health officials enacted rules in 1984 that banned private rooms with locked doors and required staff to monitor patrons.
Supervisor Rafael Mandelman pushed six years ago to remove those rules, and 2022 zoning changes allowed "adult sex venues" again, SFist reported. SFist said Sanctum would be the first new bathhouse project to come out of those efforts. Eros in the Tenderloin is currently the only gay sex club operating in the city, according to the Bay Area Reporter.
"I haven't retained an architectural firm yet," the backer told the Bay Area Reporter, as quoted by SFist. He said he hopes to have all permits within six to seven months so he can begin the buildout.