SAN ANTONIO – An iconic gay nightclub wants more time to install a fire sprinkler system after it says the mayor hasn’t followed through on her promise to help raise the necessary money — originally estimated at $550,000.
Under an agreement with the city, the Bonham Exchange has until Aug. 1 to have a completely installed, inspected and approved fire sprinkler system on at least its first floor. Without that, its certificate of occupancy will expire, effectively shutting down the club.
Javier Guerra, an attorney for the Bonham Exchange, said it would not be able to make that deadline. However, he said, the club has just secured a loan that will cover the entire sprinkler system and is poised to sign a contract for the work.
It will take an estimated five months to do the work on the entire building, he said.
“We would ask the city to give us additional time as we are moving forward in good faith,” Guerra said in a texted statement. “Unfortunately some time was lost early on as we hoped money would be furnished from other sources, but we now have the money necessary to make the installation required.”
The city declined to comment when KSAT asked Tuesday if such an extension might be possible.
Guerra confirmed the “other sources” in his statement had been a reference to Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones, who had publicly promised to help raise the money more than five months ago, telling reporters on the day the agreement was signed that she was “on the hook for helping to raise money.”
“I’m going to do what I need to do and work hard, and I hope others will chip in as well so we can save this institution,” Jones said at the time.
Asked what she was committing to specifically when she said “helping to raise money,” Jones told reporters, “The way in which you fundraise. You call and say, ‘Hey, can I count on you for X amount of money,’ right?”
However, Guerra and the club’s general manager, Joan Duckworth, said that never ended up happening.
Duckworth said there had been some early meetings with the mayor and Bryant Ambelang, CEO of Silver Ventures, the development company behind the Pearl. But she said their ideas weren’t focused on fundraising but rather changing the Bonham’s business model, such as dividing it into multiple parts to allow other bars to come in.
The ideas were non-starters for Duckworth, who is concerned about preserving both the 19th century building and Bonham Exchange’s history as an LGBTQ+ landmark.
“The only contact I’ve had is where she brought in totally new business ideas that would take away it from being the gay institution it’s been for 45 years,” Duckworth said in a Friday phone call.
Ambelang did not return multiple calls to his office.
Duckworth told KSAT she was still open to the mayor helping fundraise.
“I’m trying to hope that she is a person of her word,” she said.
The San Antonio Area Foundation confirmed the mayor’s office had inquired about opening a charitable fund for donations but ultimately did not set one up.
An apparently unrelated GoFundMe page named “Save The Bonham Exchange” had just over $5,000 in donations on Tuesday.
Why Jones backed off her promise isn’t clear. KSAT has been requesting an interview with the mayor on the subject for the past week, but her office has not made her available.
Compliance agreement
Duckworth said Jones’ fundraising promise was why she agreed to the club’s current sprinkler installation timeline with the city in the first place.
In December 2025, the Bonham Exchange was one of seven bars and clubs in the city that, according to the city, hadn’t retrofitted their buildings with automatic sprinklers or lowered their occupancy to below 300 people to comply with a 2018 fire code change.
Six of the seven ended up signing “compliance agreements” by Jan. 31, which required restricting occupancy to fewer than 300 people and having trained staff on site look for fire hazards until they fix the issue.
The Bonham Exchange held out at first. Duckworth was concerned it wouldn’t be able to raise enough money if it cut its occupancy levels.
Supportive council members pushed to let the bars and clubs operate at full capacity for another year. However, at the urging of the mayor, who was concerned about safety of the buildings, Duckworth ended up signing an agreement before the council could take up the issue at a Feb. 5 meeting.
Under the agreement, the Bonham Exchange must close its second floor and dramatically cut occupancy while sprinklers are installed.
The club can only allow up to 299 people inside until the first-floor sprinklers are finished; then it can allow up to 343. Once sprinklers on both floors are finished, the occupancy can return to 686 people.
The agreement only allows up to six months for each floor’s sprinkler installation.
While Duckworth signed the deal Feb. 5, city officials didn’t sign until the next day.
A confrontation in a side room during the council meeting between Jones and Councilwoman Sukh Kaur (D1) over the Bonham Exchange issue also led to Jones’ censure.
Previous coverage of this story on KSAT: