Bay Area's Biggest Home Sale Notched by Celeb Skincare CEO

It was a week of big trades in the Bay Area, on the residential and commercial front.

The Real Deal broke the news on the Bay Area’s biggest home sale of the year, a $51.5 million sale in the country’s priciest zip code and among the biggest home sales ever for the Peninsula.

Agatha Relota Luczo, CEO of Goop-approved Furtuna skincare brand, and her husband Stephen Luczo, chairman and former CEO of international data storage company Seagate Technology sold 81 Somerset Lane in Atherton, according to property records. Adding up the main house, guest house, library and office building, and other auxiliary spaces, the estate has over 21,500 square feet, selling for a price of about $2,400 per square foot.

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, who said that the location in coveted Menlo Circus Club and the 2 acre-lot were among the key draws to the property.

The home itself was a custom build that the Luczos wrapped in 2017 after having bought the property for $13 million in September 2013, according to county and permit records. Compass agents Brent and Mary Gullixson represented the buyers in 2013 and appear to have been the listing agents this time, 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.

The main home 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. The property is landscaped with hundreds of palm trees, including some exotic varieties.

Huge downtown deal with huge markdown

TRD also took a closer look at an eye-popping commercial sale. Blackstone and DivcoWest bought 199 Fremont in San Francisco at a 70 percent discount compared to five years earlier, thanks to a $163 million loan from Wells Fargo Bank, according to property records.

The $111.3 million deal was the biggest since the pandemic but comes out to just $265 per square foot for the vacant 25-story South Financial District building. DivcoWest and California’s largest teacher pension fund, CalSTRS, bought a 49 percent stake in it for $900 per square foot in December 2019 — just before the onset of the 2020 pandemic and the rise of remote work.

The length of the loan and other deal terms were unclear, and spokespeople for Wells Fargo, Blackstone and DivcoWest declined to answer specific questions about the debt, but the new owners said that they planned to turn the building into an artificial intelligence hub.

DivcoWest’s Gregg Walker, who heads real estate asset management for the San Francisco-based company, said in a statement that the project will “reimagine the building as a next-generation workplace” to attract AI talent to the address.

The partners plan to add a full floor of tenant amenities as part of the renovations and will rebrand the property as 300 Howard, according to an announcement about the project.

Price slashed on Pac Heights home

There was more discounting news on the city’s resi front, where San Francisco’s most expensive single-family home listing returned to market asking $27.5 million — a $7.5 million price cut from when it first came to market in 2023.

As in 2023, the listing agent for 2830 Pacific is Max Armour of Compass, who called the return to market a “fresh beginning” and said the reception to the new price has been “very good, with numerous showings.”

Armour said the lower price reflects “this next episode of San Francisco luxury real estate” amid a growing “overall positive vibe.” Last month, a slightly larger home next to the Presidio and just a few blocks from 2830 Pacific, sold for $26.5 million.

“We want to capitalize on this rising tide and find our buyer who is wanting a premier, renovated home on the Gold Coast,” he said.

Rajiv Ghatalia, founder and president of Hennessey Capital Management, has owned the six-bed, six full bath and two half bath Gold Coast home with nearly 10,000 square feet since 2010, when he bought it for $8.4 million, according to public records. Ghatalia started his San Francisco-based investment firm in 2012, and is a former partner at Goldman Sachs and Warburg Pincus. The tech-focused firm closed its initial public offering in January, grossing $190 million.

Foreclosure auction next week for Jackson Square property

Even commercial buildings in one of San Francisco’s most sought-after neighborhoods —Jackson Square — aren’t safe from the foreclosure auction gavel.

Bidding for 244 Jackson Street is slated for May 8 after its father-and-son ownership fell into default on a $13.6 million loan, the San Francisco Business Times reported this week,

Moris and David Herscowitz spent $33 million seven years ago for the four-story, 30,000-square-foot property, buying it through Roth Jackson LLC which saw its loan mature in July 2024 and a deal for a sale fell through a few months later.

The race to be the new First Republic for tech buyers

On the two-year anniversary of the demise of First Republic, tech buyers are still searching for a lender to replace its white-glove service and discounted home loans, as several banks vie to be the new go-to lender for the start-up crowd.

“There is a void banks recognize and there’s a lot of people double timing it to try to create something that’s going to have an atmosphere to replace First Republic because they know how valuable it was and it’s the kind of customers they want for their bank,” said Christie’s Sereno agent Nicholas French, who used to refer his Silicon Valley residential clients to First Republic for their mortgages, and banked there himself.

Though no clear winner has yet emerged, it’s crucial for the region and its agents that the race continues in an area where $300,000 salaries are the minimum for median-priced homes.

First Citizens Bank, which took over Silicon Valley Bank after it too went under in the spring 2023, and Citizens Private Bank, which has been successful in luring many former First Republic private bankers to its ranks, are two of the top contenders.

“We have a deep background in and full understanding of the financial intricacies involved with those types of clients, and that’s something our competitors typically don’t have,” said Michele Lindzy, who was the head of mortgage lending for private bank clients at SVB and is now the senior director of private mortgage lending at First Citizens.

Newer and very local banks are also making their pitch to techies, starting off with general wealth management and investment loans before branching out into home loans. They are also pushing the white-glove approach for which First Republic was known.

“You know that there’s a high demand for it if banks’ taglines might as well be, ‘We’re replacing First Republic. Come see us,’” French said.