A clubgoer dances at Bonham Exchange on April 10, 2026.
Isaiah Moseley/Contributor
Bonham Exchange on April 10, 2026.
Isaiah Moseley/Contributor
The Bonham Exchange wants more time to install legally required fire sprinklers after Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones backtracked on her promise to help the iconic gay nightclub raise money for the safety equipment.
If the city doesn’t extend the Aug. 1 deadline, the Bonham Exchange will lose its certificate of occupancy — which all businesses are required to have — and be forced to shut its doors.
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In 2018, the city ordered restaurants and clubs with occupancy limits of 300 people or more to install sprinkler systems. The Bonham Exchange and several other clubs had yet to comply when the city started cracking down earlier this year.
The club’s manager, Joan Duckworth, signed an agreement with the city in February promising to install sprinklers on the first floor of the club within six months — that is, by Aug. 1. In exchange, the city would let the club continue operating, but with a lower occupancy cap of under 300 people instead of the usual 686.
The occupancy cap would have increased to 343 people in August if the first-floor sprinklers had been installed and inspected by the San Antonio Fire Department and Development Services Department. The club’s agreement with the city gave owners one year to finish installing sprinklers on the second floor, but prohibited use of that level until the installation was completed and OK’d by the city.
Duckworth has said she signed the agreement at Jones’ urging because the mayor had promised to raise the $550,000 for a sprinkler system by the end of March. That money never came through, Bonham Exchange attorney R. Javier Guerra said.
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Before Jones’ pledge, Duckworth had been reluctant to sign because she worried the new occupancy restrictions would cut deeply into the club’s revenue, potentially forcing it out of business.
Guerra said the club won’t be able to meet the August deadline, but in the past week was able to secure a loan and is signing an agreement with a contractor to install the sprinklers. He said the contractor estimates that completing both floors will take five months.
This week, Guerra requested an extension through the City Attorney’s office.
“We’re hoping for some grace from the city given that we’re in good faith, we’ve got a reputable contractor doing it and we’d really like to stay open while we put the sprinklers in,” Guerra said. “We haven’t been wasting time.”
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After Jones failed to raise $550,000 for the Bonham Exchange within 45 days, as Guerra and Duckworth said she had promised to do, the nightclub tried to raise the money. The club hosted a fundraising event in May and was a beneficiary of the Pride Bigger Than Texas Festival and Parade, which divvies out money to local organizations. But Guerra said the club’s owners couldn’t scrape together much money.
Guerra said they’ve been trying to secure a loan for a couple of months.
Development Services Director Amin Tohmaz said Wednesday that he had yet to review the Bonham Exchange’s request and could not comment on whether the city would grant an extension.
His department, which issues certificates of occupancy, worked alongside the fire department early this year to hammer out so-called “compliance agreements” with bars that had not installed fire sprinklers so that they could continue operating with lower occupancies and increased fire safety requirements.
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Even if the Bonham Exchange doesn’t get the extension and has to close while it installs sprinklers, Guerra said the closure wouldn’t be permanent. The club would work to get a new certificate of occupancy after it installs the sprinkler system.
“The Bonham is not going away,” Guerra said.
Guerra said he doesn’t know why Jones didn’t raise the money she’d pledged.
“So did it slow us down a little bit — possibly,” Guerra said. “But all this stuff takes time. It would be nice if we had gotten money from the mayor, but it didn’t work out that way and we’ve been able to fix it on our own.”
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Falling behind
Instead of helping the nightclub raise money for a sprinkler system, Jones introduced Duckworth to Bryant Ambelang, CEO of Pearl development firm Silver Ventures, to discuss how to potentially shore up the club’s finances and ensure its future.
At an April 1 meeting, Ambelang pitched the idea of generating more revenue by leasing sections of the three-story, 25,000-square-ft. building to other businesses, including bar operators, or turning part of it into an indoor market with rentable spaces for artisans.
Duckworth rejected all the proposals.
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“The mayor kept her promise to the Bonham Exchange by arranging for them to receive several potential business solutions, not only to install the legally required sprinkler systems the Bonham has needed, but options that would also put the Bonham on a path to become financially sustainable and open for the long-term,” acting chief of staff Andrew Fuentes said. “The mayor understands the Bonham chose not to explore those potential business solutions further and respects their decision.”
The day Duckworth signed a compliance agreement, Jones told reporters that she planned to raise money for the Bonham Exchange by tapping potential donors. She didn’t mention pitching the Bonham on new business models.
Like the Bonham, Industry Nightclub, Heat Nightclub, Nuevo Volcan, Club 727, I-10 Icehouse and the Paper Tiger didn’t have sprinkler systems as of late January. They also signed compliance agreements with the city pledging to make upgrades and reduce their occupancy limits in the meantime.
The Heat and Industry were allowed to return to normal operations in April. Club 727, Paper Tiger, Nuevo Volcan and I-10 Icehouse are all in various stages of installing their sprinkler systems, their deadlines spread throughout August, according to a July 2 memo from Assistant City Manager John Peterek to City Manager Erik Walsh.
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The city granted an extension to Nuevo Volcan. It was slated to be close by May 4 if it didn’t install sprinklers, but Peterek noted that the club was granted more time because it “has been showing progress in the permit activity and construction.”
The Bonham Exchange, however, was the only club in the group that Peterek noted that hadn’t made any progress on securing permits for its sprinkler system.
The aftermath
Jones had her most intense falling-out with City Council colleagues in the days after the Bonham Exchange signed its compliance agreement — resulting in all but two of the 10 council members voting on Feb. 27 to censure Jones.
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The morning Duckworth signed the agreement, Jones shouted and cursed at Councilwoman Sukh Kaur over the issue in a private room near the City Council dais. Kaur — who’d been working with Bonham Exchange owners on a compromise months before Jones got involved — filed a formal complaint about the incident, prompting a third-party investigation.
A New Braunfels attorney hired by the city found that Jones violated the City Council’s Code of Conduct and city administrative directives regarding employment discrimination, harassment and violent or threatening behavior in the workplace.
The Texas Attorney General’s Office ruled in May that the city of San Antonio can keep the results of its investigation secret because it’s exempt from state open records requirements because of attorney-client privilege, which protects information exchanged between lawyers and the people they work for.