After 30 years, Castro’s homosexual bathhouse Eros is transferring to a brand new
After 30 years, Castro Gay Sex Club and Sauna Eros (2051 Market St.) has announced that it will move to a new, unknown location.
Eros owner Ken Rowe told BrokeAss Stuart this week that the club is closing and they have signed a new lease “closer to downtown”.
It is currently unclear when Eros will officially close its doors on Market Street, but a moving celebration is scheduled for Sunday, December 12th.
Eros is from 2051 Market St. | Image: Google
“We’re moving, but we want you to take a look around, celebrate with us again,” Rowe said on Facebook. “[A]and find out more about our exciting new opening in 2022. “
Hoodline asked Eros for comment but received no response.
Eros opened on Market Street in 1992 at the height of the AIDS epidemic for at least three decades.
A now removed real estate listing from last year indicated the two-story, roughly 7,040-square-foot building was up for sale at an undisclosed price.
“We don’t want to say too much about the new location because we’re working with the town hall and stakeholders to get the development approved in the near future,” Rowe told BrokeAss Stuart Has a firm grip on the status quo. Hopefully changes will be proposed very soon. “
“Eros is the only gay sex club in town right now, so SF will have a few months without a legal sex club,” added Rowe.
Photo: Ken Rowe / Instagram
In February 2020, before the COVID-19 outbreak began, District 8 supervisor Rafael Mandelman introduced law that would lift the city’s bathhouse ban, which has been in place since 1984.
The law passed the Board of Directors in July 2020 and was passed by the Ministry of Health in January 2021. However, the opening of a new bathhouse was blocked by zoning issues with the SF planning department.
Hoodline readers will recall that SoMa’s Blow Buddies closed after 32 years in business last year, as did the Watergarden bathhouse in San Jose, which had been in operation since 1977. Berkeley’s Steamworks at 2107 4th St. will remain open.
While many companies struggled to stay open during the pandemic, Rowe said in an interview with Hoodline last year, “We assume we will roll with this pandemic as we did with HIV.”
Update, 4 p.m.: Ken Rowe announced to Hoodline that Eros will officially close its doors at its Market St. location on Wednesday, December 15th.
“Our lease expired in the summer and we were able to get an extension through the end of the year,” said Rowe. “Our rent would go up.”
“The landlords here have been great and they only bought the building a little over a year ago,” added Rowe. “They look at their own investments and we understand that.”
Rowe currently declined to indicate Eros’ new location due to ongoing problems with the planning code.
Rowe tells Hoodline that if the city doesn’t make the changes to the planning code, Eros can terminate the lease. “It might or may not all come together,” Rowe said.
Rowe says he is disappointed that Eros will leave the Castro after three decades. “When the founders started Eros, they wanted to be right on Main Street, not hidden in a remote part of town,” Rowe said.
Rowe says they spent a lot of time looking for a new location at the Castro but were unsuccessful. “The people we spoke to weren’t interested in contacting us,” Rowe said.
Rowe tells Hoodline that they worked with both the Office of District 8 Supervisor Rafael Mandelman and the Castro / Upper Market Community Benefit District to find a new location.
Although they couldn’t stay at Castro, Rowe is hoping Eros will reopen in one of the queer cultural districts like the Transgender District or the Leather & LGBTQ District.
