Tech Exec Stephen Luczo Sells Atherton Mansion for $51.5M

A Seagate Technology exec has sold his Atherton mansion for $51.5 million, the biggest residential sale in the Bay Area so far this year and among the biggest home sales ever for the Peninsula.

Stephen Luczo, chairman and former CEO of the international data storage company, and his wife Agatha Relota Luczo, a model and founder of the Italian-made Furtuna skincare brand, sold 81 Somerset Lane in what appears to be an off-market sale on March 19, according to property records. It has not been reported in the press until now.

Compass agents Mary and Brent Gullixson represented the buyers when the Luczos bought the 2-acre property for $12.95 million in September 2013, according to property records and Redfin. The Gullixsons appear to have been the listing agents this time around as they produced a marketing booklet for the Menlo Circus Club home. They declined to confirm if they represented the sellers or say if they also represented the buyers, Reksio LLC, citing privacy concerns.

Gregory Biagini, a partner at Realize CPA, is the manager of the San Francisco-based LLC, according to state filings. He did not immediately reply to a request for comment, but according to the Realize website, he has “a broad range of clients, including venture capitalists, attorneys, entrepreneurs, corporate executives, philanthropists and families with multigenerational wealth.”

The home had been “privately and quietly marketed” to a small group of agents and buyers for many months before the sale, according to Atherton agents.

The Circus Club location and lot size was a large part of the appeal to buyers, said Mara McCain, a Peninsula agent with The Agency, who toured the home. She said sales at this price point are rare because even high-end Atherton buyers are “most comfortable” somewhere in the $30-million range.

“They are capable of going up to the fifties, but few do,” she said. “It’s usually for a larger lot in a good location.”

The Luczos demoed the pre-existing property shortly after they bought it, according to Atherton permit records, and construction wrapped in 2017. The couple sold another Atherton home for $16.5 million in 2018, as well as a Los Gatos home for $9.5 million that same year, according to county records.

The main home on Somerset Lane has six bedrooms, seven full bathrooms and three half bathrooms in about 16,000 square feet, including a professional recording studio and theater designed by the same firm that created the Jazz at Lincoln Center Concert Hall, according to the marketing booklet. There is also a fitness center with a steam shower, a 25-meter lap pool, a pickleball court, an outdoor kitchen with built-in pizza oven and barbeque, attached entertainment cabana and garages to accommodate up to eight cars.

A one-bed, one-bath guest house has 1,100 square feet and a full kitchen, and a 1,250-square-foot library and office building has a half-bath and kitchenette. In total, the estate has over 21,500 square feet, and is landscaped with hundreds of palm trees, including some exotic varieties.

Though not all high-end sales are reported to multiple listing services, the Somerset Lane sale appears to top a 2024 Atherton record set by Gap co-founder Doris Fisher, who sold two parcels of her long-time estate for a combined $48 million to one buyer. In San Mateo County over the last five years, the Somerset Lane sale is topped only by the $54.4 million sale of a 12-acre Woodside property last summer, according to Redfin.

The Atherton ultra-high-end market has been moving briskly this spring, agents said, with several sales of new builds in the $30- million-plus range.

Compass agent Omar Maissen said he had seen “unprecedented movement” among the ultra-high- net- worth set, pointing to Bay Area-centered venture capital funding for one key reason why.

“The high-end market is firing now,” he said.

The Somerset Lane sale is another “sign that something is happening,” he said, as well as a great “harbinger” for the $55 million co-listing he has been marketing in Atherton since last fall.

“Luxury buyers from around the world are looking to invest their money in Bay Area real estate and nowhere more so and hotter than Atherton,” he said.