Clint Reilly Napa Estate Auction Ends Early

San Francisco Examiner and Julia Morgan Ballroom owner Clint Reilly’s 130-acre wine country estate was supposed to be sold at auction on Sotheby’s Concierge Auctions platform this week. But, after consulting with their advisers, Reilly and wife Janet decided not to move forward with the sale, according to Sotheby’s agent Arthur Goodrich, who had been co-listing the vineyard property with Federico Parlagreco.

“Overall, the auction process was extremely successful in exposing the property to a very large audience that may not have previously paid attention to the sale,” Goodrich said. “The initial bids were solid, but not at the level the Reillys believe this offering should invite.”

He said the property got “multiple seven-figure bids” but wouldn’t give specifics.

Marketing the property for auction elicited over 40 qualified showings in just 49 days, said Michael Schwartz, Concierge’s vice president of business affairs.

The property at 3000 and 3090 Mount Veeder Road, originally listed over a year ago at $22 million, has over 10,000 square feet, eight-bedrooms and eight bathrooms split between the main house, a caretakers house and a towering guest house that was billed in the auction marketing materials as “Napa County’s tallest guest structure.” It is now off the market but may return later this year, Goodrich said. The agents are “currently having pricing discussions,” but don’t yet know what number will be on the listing when it returns.

After coming to market in September 2023, the price dropped to $19.5 million in April 2024.

Clint Reilly Napa Estate Auction Ends Early — (Sotheby’s Concierge Auction)

Starting offers between $7.5 million and $14 million were expected before the virtual bidding was scheduled to kick off last week, according to the Concierge listing. Goodrich and Parlagreco said in a joint statement that they received inquiries and conducted tours with high-net-worth clients, but did not receive any offers prior to the auction.

On the Concierge platform, the buyer pays a 12 percent “buyer’s premium” in addition to the purchase price, but that fee drops to 6 percent if the winning buyer puts in a binding starting bid prior to the auction. The winning buyer’s agent gets a 2 percent commission on the sale.

Sellers are within their rights to remove a property after those early bids come in but before the official auction begins, according to a Concierge spokesperson, who would not say how often such removals take place.

“The auction process ultimately determines what the market value is for a given property right now for sellers who are ready to sell,” said the spokesperson. “After an initial marketing period, sellers also have the ability to determine whether or not they want to accept the highest of the starting bids that come forward, at which point the auction either opens for additional bidding or the property remains available on the traditional market.”

The auction was originally set for January but was pushed out to allow “all interested parties the chance to conduct their due diligence,” according to the Concierge representative.

In a joint statement before they pulled the property from the auction site, the Reillys said that the results of the additional exposure had exceeded their expectations, and that they were excited at the “prospect of finding the property’s next keeper through the auction process.”

They added that they “deeply love” the estate and especially enjoyed summers there with their daughters and other relatives for the last 25 years. It was built in 1988 for the heir to the Wasa Swedish Crispbread company, and the Reillys bought it in 1999, according to a 2023 Wall Street Journal article on the listing.

Some of the property’s more unique architectural qualities — like its main villa residence designed by British architect David Connor, which blends modern, Art Deco, and Deconstructivist influences, and its guest tower with panoramic rooftop deck — are among its biggest strengths, the listing agents said. But they also mean a longer process to find the right buyer.

“The Napa property is a truly extraordinary offering, and finding the right buyer — someone who truly values its architectural significance and the privilege of owning such a grand estate in one of the world’s arguably most exclusive wine regions — takes time,” they said in a joint statement before the auction was set to begin.

A number of inquiries came from outside the Bay Area, they added, particularly the East Coast and Southern California. Interest was primarily driven by the property’s architectural significance, expansive parcel and the opportunity to cultivate Cabernet Sauvignon grapes on 8 acres of established lots, as the Mount Veeder American Viticultural Area is known for its high-end winemaking. The property’s Veeder House wines produce about 500 cases of wine annually.

Some of those Cabernet cases were on the Concierge site in a separate “American Terroir” auction, which was run by Sotheby’s. It did go forward and ended Feb. 27. Reilly sold one of his longtime houses in San Francisco’s Seacliff neighborhood for $14.5 million early last year, but kept the home next door. He is also the owner of a commercial real estate portfolio that includes 235, 340 and 360 Pine Street, as well as the Merchant’s Exchange Building, known for its famed Julia Morgan Ballroom, at 465 California. In addition to owning the Examiner and SF Weekly since 2021, Reilly has also owned luxury publication The Nob Hill Gazette since 2016.

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