One of the owners of the Elbo Room said this week that the popular bar at the corner of Valencia and Sycamore streets will not be closing anytime soon and explained that it was the owners of the building who made the formal inquiry exploring the idea of a condominium project.

He and his partners own the business, not the building, Matt Shapiro wrote in an email. Dennis Ring and Susan Rokisky-Ring, the owners, purchased the 1915 building in 2005 for a little over $1 million, according to property records.

Shapiro said the owners are “close friends” and have no plans to act on their proposal. “They just want to know what they can or cannot do with the property way down the line.”

The Preliminary Assessment by the Planning Department, first reported on SocketSite Friday, was a response to an application the owners filed in September for an assessment.

The Planning Department’s November response gave the owners 18 months — until May 15, 2015 — to fulfill a number of requirements including an environmental review and a “pre-application meeting with surrounding neighbors and registered neighborhood groups.”

Orin Goldsby, of Kermin Morris Architects, who is listed in the Planning Department documents as the project manager, declined to comment on the project and said he would pass questions on to the owners.

The owners have not responded to requests for an interview. Shapiro said they were on vacation, but he felt assured that they had no plans to move forward with the project.

After SocketSite reported on Ring and Rokisky-Ring’s application Friday, Mission Local and other sites followed.

Shapiro responded to the news on Facebook saying the Elbo Room would not close.

Socketsite countered by citing the documents.

When asked to explain on Monday why he insisted the Elbo Room would stay open despite the formal inquiry, Shapiro explained that he did not own the building, only the business. But he stressed that the owners were not seriously considering the proposal. “If it were imminent,” he said, “I would be freaking out.”

The Planning Department’s assessment describes the project as “a mixed-use building approximately 9,200 square feet in size and containing nine residential units (the units would range from approximately 500 square feet to 1,000 square feet in size), six parking spaces, and 770 square feet of commercial space. The proposed building would be five stories and approximately 55 feet in height. The proposed mix of units is three one-bedroom units and six two-bedroom units.”

Although the owners have not responded to inquiries, it is clear that even if they want to proceed, many hurdles remain.

The obstacles to putting a condominium project in the space include an environmental review and a historic resource evaluation because the property “may have associations with the history of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) individuals in San Francisco…,” the Planning Department concluded.

In addition, the owners are required to hold a pre-application meeting with the community and submit an environmental evaluation, “Conditional-Use Authorization, or Building Permit Application,” no later than May, 15, 2015, according to the assessment.

Once that date is passed, a new Preliminary Project Assessment is required, according to the documents.