It looked like the end of an era for Ken Fulk's loft-like office and event space on Seventh Street in SoMa when he put it on the market three years ago. But it has not sold, and Fulk now says he's going to get back to throwing parties there.

Designer Ken Fulk has put his stamp on a number of Bay Area restaurants, wealthy socialites' mansions, and even the ultra-VIP section of Outside Lands. But as the Robb Report noted when it first hit the market in the fall of 2022, his 'Magic Factory' live-work space at 310 Seventh Street "has always been his calling card."

"It’s an epic place to throw a party,” Fulk told the publication. “Much of the building’s legendary status has been forged through the parties and people it’s hosted.”

Fulk also told the Robb Report that he and his design and event-planning firm had "simply outgrown" the building, and he was listing it for sale at $8.9 million.

It was then re-listed last spring at a slightly lower price, $7.7 million, and the asking price was lowered again in September to $7 million.

But, after failing to find a buyer, Fulk tells the SF Business Times this week that he's been inspired to start using the space again.

"That building has become such a part of my identity and has so many memories, and I was trying to find the right steward and had the epiphany that maybe I am the right steward," Fulk tells the paper. "I feel like our city is buzzing and always looking for the best version of itself, and I feel it's time for this place to be ap art of this new conversation too."

The 14,000-square-foot brick-and-timber building, which has living quarters and entertaining space on the upper level and office space below, was the former workshop and showroom of Mr. S Leather, which relocated to its current space at 385 8th Street in the 90s. And Fulk says the space therefore "always sort of had this wink toward San Francisco's slightly naughty side combined with the highbrow work that we do."

Original signage from Mr. S is preserved on the upstairs terrace, as seen below. And the main living and entertaining area is anchored, in part, by a taxidermy ostrich.

Fulk lives with his husband in Clarendon Heights, near Sutro Tower, the pair also have a home in Provincetown, Massachusetts, and Fulk has a design studio in New York as well. Recently, his work has taken him to Los Angeles for the first time, where he's working on a full-scale renovation of the Beverly Hills Hotel.

He also bought the Paramour Estate in the Silver Lake neighborhood and restored that into a nine-room, luxury boutique hotel.

He now says his focus is shifting back to San Francisco, and he recently threw a 200-person party with Architectural Digest at the old Magic Factory. (Fulk is an AD100 designer, and was profiled by the magazine in 2023.)

As he tells the Business Times, "We are going to have cool events and programing and welcoming people back into the space that I think has a vibration — it's like that building has a soul."

He adds, "I think there is an inclination for us in 2025... people want to be together and we live in such a hyperdigital world ... I think as a counterbalance to that we want to be truly connected."

So, be on the lookout for your party invite I guess.

Top image: Photo by Douglas Friedman