Yammer founder to lose millions on historic Jackson Square penthouse

Yammer founder and Textline CEO Alan Braverman and his wife Angela, president of Space Lace Auctions and Atelier, could lose $4.6 million on their restoration of a historic Jackson Square penthouse.

That’s assuming they get their asking price of $7.9 million on the indoor-outdoor property with a 3,000-square-foot “sky garden” on its roof.

The couple spent more than $9 million over several years turning the approximately 3,200-square-foot top floor of an 1860s-era Jackson Square penthouse into their “dream home” with no thought of its resale value, according to their listing agent Gregg Lynn of Sotheby’s International Realty.

“It was to be their forever home,” Lynn said via email. But those plans changed as the couple’s baby got older and they realized they wanted to be closer to family in the Midwest. “No one wants to sell at a loss — their strong preference would be to sell and recoup their costs, however they realize that is not possible and that’s not going to prevent them from moving on with their lives near their family.”

The couple paid $3.5 million for the top-floor flat at 42 Hotaling Place in August 2012 after they “had seen everything on the market” and fell in love with the history of the property and its location near the Embarcadero, he said. They also bought the commercial space on the ground floor at 38 Hotaling Place in January 2020 for nearly $5.7 million to house Space Lace’s couture and vintage collections. They are asking $6 million for the now-vacant ground-floor space. The middle floor of the building has a different owner and is occupied by an architecture firm.

Lynn described the years-long renovation on Hotaling Place — an alleyway flanked by mid-19th-Century buildings that were saved from the fires after the 1906 earthquake because they housed one of the biggest whiskey stores in the West — as being “similar to renovating a historic home on a canal in Venice.” The alleyway’s antique shops and art galleries had to be shut down when construction materials were craned into the property, he said. Other “expensive considerations” included seismic structural work, and upgrades to electrical, plumbing, HVAC and technology systems.

Other than the historic facade, only some original brick and timber features remain in the three-bedroom, two-bath home. The rest is completely new, Lynn said, with venetian plaster walls crafted by a third-generation plasterer and a commercial-grade kitchen with an “on-demand wall” that rises and falls out of the peninsula to separate the cooking area from the rest of the open-concept living space.

Most of the couple’s favorite features aren’t even inside the home, Lynn said, but in the rooftop “sky garden.” It has a large pond with a water feature, an outdoor kitchen and dining space, a pavilion theater with an outdoor television, a hot tub, bocce lawn and a yoga area.

Lynn said the unusual location in a nonresidential portion of the city near downtown is the main reason the Bravermans are likely to see such a large loss.

“If this property were in Pacific Heights, it would be offered at $15 million,” he said.

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