The Punch Line San Francisco secured a multi-year lease from its new landlord late Monday, July 22, allowing the 40-year-old comedy club to survive at its historic location long after a pending eviction date of Aug. 1.

Terms of the lease were not disclosed but the agreement comes less than two weeks before the Punch Line was scheduled to lose its home at 9 Maritime Plaza, and just a few hours after it was added to the city’s Legacy Business Registry.

“We’re excited that the Punch Line will remain our neighbor and a vibrant part of the Bay Area community for years to come,” said an unnamed Google spokesperson via email.

The Maritime Plaza complex is owned by Morgan Stanley, which complicated the lease negotiation by necessitating a three-way deal between Morgan Stanley, its primary tenant Google, and the sub-tenant Live Nation. But all parties were able to come to an agreement Monday to keep the Punch Line in its second-floor home atop a parking garage on Battery Street.

Live Nation, which operates the Punch Line, declined to comment on Monday, but even before the lease was signed the venue had comedy shows scheduled through Sept. 22 listed on its website.

“To me it is important to have the city government recognize San Francisco’s status as a world class comedy center,” said local comedian Nato Green, who’s helped spearhead a campaign to #SavethePunchLine along with W. Kamau Bell and comedy heavy-hitter Dave Chappelle.

The 184-seat club, beloved by comics and audience alike for its low-ceilinged intimacy, has been in limbo since late May when Live Nation announced it had been unable to reach a lease extension and was in search of a new home. It shocked comics — local and beyond – who began pleading for the venue to stay put.

“The club has the kind of ju-ju that is embedded in the walls and can’t be moved,” testified Green at the Monday meeting.

News of the Punch Line’s possible eviction infuriated the comedy community shortly after it was revealed that Google had leased the one-story building as part of a larger deal for space in 1 Maritime Plaza, a 25-story office plaza located across a courtyard from the comedy club. It prompted Supervisor Aaron Peskin to call a press conference in mid-May on the steps of City Hall to introduce an interim zoning ordinance to protect the Punch Line that attracted the local comedians and stars alike, including Chappelle who urged the community protect “one of the premiere comedy clubs in America.”

Then, just one day after the rally, Google announced that it had no intention to evict the Punch Line or absorb its space for its high tech needs.

Peskin, who has led the two-month effort to save the club, was in a victorious mood Monday evening.

“The city and the comic community were serious when we said that displacement wasn’t a laughing matter,” said Peskin. “I want to acknowledge the staff at the Punch Line and Google for negotiating in good faith and remind the community that organizing gets the goods. Long live the Punch Line!”

The Punch Line opened in 1978 across the walkway from Embarcadero One. Originally, it was surplus space to Bill Graham’s Old Waldorf music venue. Graham ran both clubs, but the Punch Line long outlasted the Old Waldorf, which closed in 1983.

“I know how difficult it is to determine what makes something good,” said commissioner Sharky Laguana, before Monday’s legacy status vote, “but you know it when you see it. It’s magic.”

In 2014, the Board of Supervisors created the Legacy Small Business Registry. A year later, voters approved a Legacy Business Historic Preservation Fund that would make qualifying businesses eligible for Small Business Assistance grants of $500 per employee or up to $50,000 a year. Landlords of Legacy Small Business are eligible for rent stabilization grants of $4.50 per square foot or a total of $22,500 a year for extending leases of Legacy Businesses for a 10 year minimum. Employees are also eligible for annual cash grants of $500 each.

The 6-0 vote by the city’s Small Business Commission on Monday afternoon granted the Punch Line legacy status, qualifying it for rent protection and cash grants for its 34 employees.

In addition to the Punch Line, Scoma’s Restaurant on Fisherman’s Wharf was named the 200th Legacy Business on the registry.

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