San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus has helped to secure a four-story building that will soon serve as the National LGBTQ Center for the Arts, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.

As the first of its kind in the United States, the centre will eventually provide free and highly discounted space for queer-related art-groups, cultural activists, community leaders, educators and showcases which may not succeed otherwise.

The Center will reside in an Art Deco building worth almost $10 million which is located just one mile away from The Castro.

Initially, the space will act as a home for the San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus who will have a permanent home for the first time in its 40 year history.

Eventually the Center will open up for other groups to use. The facilities will allow groups to record and broadcast “everything from concerts and master classes to interviews and lectures, essentially opening up their programming to anybody, anywhere with an internet connection,” the Chronicle reports.

Chris Verdugo, Executive Director of the National LGBTQ Center for the Arts, says, “The way we envision this space is really being a community space, so being able to bring in more LGBTQ arts organizations.”

He said that this would include groups from around the country and the world.

“As we introduce this into the community,” Verdugo continued, “a big piece of that will be aligning ourselves with other various LGBTQ arts organizations who need rehearsal space, who need small performance spaces.”

The centre has been able to open thanks to a donation by SFGMC member Terrence Chan. Verdugo has said that the National LGBTQ Center will seek women and people of colour for its official board in order to represent the spectrum of the community.

A transgender historical district and a queer leather district are also in development in San Francisco as the city continues to embrace its legacy of LGBT+ culture.