The founder of a pornography website offloaded three San Francisco buildings amid a legal battle over property he owns.
Peter Acworth, founder of Kink.com, sold the three properties for a combined $6.7 million, the San Francisco Business Times reported. He sold the buildings at 201 Ninth Street in South of Market, which formerly hosted the AsiaSF nightclub, and mixed-use buildings at 220-224 Sixth Street in SoMa and 2950-2952 21st Street in the Mission District. An affiliate of Brenton Wickham, CEO of commercial real estate investor Urban Rock Properties, was the buyer.
Acworth and his affiliate, A Star Holdings LLC, remain embroiled in a legal dispute tied to a fourth property in the Mission District. Earlier this year, a San Francisco Superior Court judge found Acworth liable for repeated violations of an easement governing a shared space between a property at 1799 Mission Street and a building owned by Wendy Sharp.
The court awarded Sharp a judgment of more than $300,000, though her attorney said the unpaid amount exceeds $440,000 after legal fees and accrued interest. In a court filing earlier this month, Sharp’s lawyer alleged the sale of the three properties was no coincidence, arguing Acworth was moving to divest assets that had been securing the judgment.
Acworth’s presence in San Francisco real estate dates back decades. In 2006, he bought the 200,000-square-foot San Francisco Armory building for $14.5 million. He used it as Kink.com’s headquarters and production studio before selling it in 2018 for $65 million.
One of the properties sold, the former home of AsiaSF, is slated to become a new nightclub called 201 Bodega. Whether the ownership change affects those plans is unclear. The venue has been preparing for a summer opening after the closure of the cabaret club last year.
Acworth’s A Star Holdings LLC still has at least one major San Francisco holding, a mansion at the corner of California and Franklin Streets in Pacific Heights.
— Chris Malone Méndez
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