Hillsborough Home Asks $88 Million for Potential Record Sale

An estate in Hillsborough is going for the gold with a list price that could set a new record in the Silicon Valley enclave.

Villa del Verano, occupied by private equity investor Ted Kruttschnitt and his wife Alexia, is on the market for $88 million, which if it sold at that number would be the highest amount paid for a house in the Peninsula town, Mansion Global reported. Jenn Gilson of Golden Gate Sotheby’s International Realty holds the listing for the gated compound at 3000 Ralston Avenue.

The mansion sits on a 12.3-acre property and has garnered acclaim for its design inside and out. The home was envisioned by Architectural Digest 100 architect Andrew Skurman and Architectural Digest 100 designer Suzanne Tucker, and once received the California Landscape Contractors Association’s Grand Sweepstakes Award for best residential real estate completed in California.

The design itself was inspired by Italy’s famed Lake Como, at Kruttschnitt’s request.

“We visited Lake Como several times, and it was always special to us,” Kruttschnitt told Mansion Global. The estate came together when the couple bought three adjacent properties in 2006, combined them into one and demolished the old homes on the parcels to build a grand new mansion.

The couple hired 110 subcontractors, including some from Europe, to complete the home over six years.The 12,404-square-foot house, finished in 2013, was designed to host large-scale events, with Kruttschnitt noting a recent black-tie event on the front lawn with 450 guests as an example. The 82-year-old philanthropist and his wife are offloading the property as he and his wife spend more time at their home in Palm Desert.

The home includes six bedrooms, seven full bathrooms and 10 half baths as well as a 4,612-square-foot guest house with one bedroom and an office. The main house boasts a fitness center, a theater, a game room, a spa and a 2,100-gallon saltwater aquarium with tropical fish. Outside, there is a swimming pool, an 150-seat amphitheater, an event lawn, a two-story sports pavilion, courts for tennis, pickleball, volleyball, badminton, horseshoe, shuffleboard, and bocce ball, as well as a truncated golf course and a putting green.

— Chris Malone Méndez