Guess what this former Boise sex shop will be next, children? Hint: ‘Awesome.’

Touring the Pleasure Boutique with inspectors and estimators — surrounded by X-rated toys and adult novelties — Ryan Peck’s world sometimes felt surreal, he admits.

“We’d be talking about removing walls or redoing the HVAC,” says Peck, managing director of Boise Rock School. “Right over my shoulder would be some crazy thing.”

But now that the nonprofit music organization has purchased the building at 5022 W. Fairview Ave., Peck sounds amped. Along with lingerie, any lingering questions have vanished.

After all, what’s sexier than controlling your own destiny?

A 501 (c)(3), Boise Rock School paid $690,000 for its 6,895-square-foot future home — “a really good deal,” Peck explained in a Friday phone conversation. The Pleasure Boutique closed in late December after nearly two decades on Fairview.

For the first time since its inception, Boise Rock School is armed with the infrastructure and location to supercharge its ambitions as a cultural hub for youth across the Treasure Valley. The Idaho nonprofit leases its current space in downtown Boise, where it provides music lessons in a group-focused environment.

Owning its building

“I think that sometimes people have a perception of what we are,” says Peck, who co-founded Boise Rock School in 2008 with Jared Goodpaster. “ ‘Oh, it’s a bunch of 6-year-olds playing AC/DC.’ But in reality, we have teenagers that are writing original songs and recording them. We see hundreds and hundreds of kids every week. We are one of the busiest — if not the busiest — after-school arts organizations in the area. And that’s a good thing for our city. That makes our city better.”

Boise Rock School offers outreach to places such as St. Luke’s Children’s Hospital School and Ada County Juvenile Detention Center. “We don’t turn anybody away out of inability to pay,” Peck adds.

Yet as Boise has gotten bigger, so has Boise Rock School’s ultimate question.

“We were worried,” Peck says. “Like, ‘Hey, we grew this thing, and it’s a nonprofit. We want to ensure that it’s here forever.’ So part of that piece of a puzzle in a rapidly growing city is, ‘How do we have the nonprofit own a building?’ ”

When the Pleasure Boutique went on the real-estate market, “we had raised enough money, right on the nail, to buy the building with cash,” Peck says. “The nonprofit bought it with cash.”

But this is just “the midpoint,” Peck says. Now the fundraising song must start all over again — to the tune of about $400,000.

“It’s going to take a significant build-out ...,” he says, “to get the building in the shape we want it to be, to do what we want to do.”

Future plans

Plans include 10 to 12 classrooms. A professional recording studio for music and film. A small, all-ages venue for concerts, conducted in partnership with fellow nonprofit Boise All-ages Movement Project (B-AMP). “Hopefully, they would help run the venue component,” Peck explains.

The building also will house Juno Arts, Boise Rock School’s sister digital-media nonprofit for teens and young adults. Expanded classes in graphic design and filmmaking will be offered, he says.

Peck hopes that Boise Rock School will move to its new building by the end of 2021.

“Once it’s built out, it’s gonna be awesome. It’s going to completely change what you thought it was. No one’s going to remember it was the Pleasure Boutique.”

“Could have bought the Spearmint Rhino, I guess,” he finally admits with a laugh. “No, it’s not for sale. I’m just joking.”

This story was originally published January 20, 2021 at 3:03 PM.