Pair of Atherton estates sell for combined $51M

As the Bay Area’s single-family home market enters mid-winter — typically a slow-down period — Atherton’s remains hot.

A pair of estates collectively sold for nearly $51 million during the past two weeks, extending a recent spike in home sales in the San Mateo County town despite unfavorable market conditions. The pricier of the two deals involved the 2.6-acre site at 191 Britton Avenue in the Menlo Circus Club neighborhood, among Atherton’s most exclusive areas. The property, which includes a four-story main home and guest and pool houses, sold for nearly $27 million, or about $1,637 square feet of living space.

The seller was a limited liability company managed by The Cambria Group, a Dallas-based private equity firm. The buyer was an LLC that shares an address with a four-bed, five-bath home in Palo Alto, about four miles east of the Britton Avenue estate.

Compass’ Mary and Brent Gullixson were the pad’s listing brokers. The pair listed 191 Britton for sale in February 2021 at $32 million before cutting the ask six months later to just under $30 million, according to the Compass website. It ended up selling for 17 percent below its initial ask.

Neither the Gullixsons nor Cambria responded to requests for comment, while the two people identified on California business entity filings as the buyer’s secretary and its CEO couldn’t be reached. The deal closed Oct. 18.

In the second sale, a different LLC paid $24 million to acquire an acre-sized lot at 95 Mesa Court from homebuilder Pacific Peninsula Group, which purchased it two years earlier for less than a third of the price. At the time of that sale, the site was already developed with a three-bedroom, four-bathroom main home totaling 3,400 square feet.

The homebuilder redeveloped the entire property, replacing the 1950s-era house and pool with new ones and adding a standalone granny unit, a spa, a cabana and a detached garage, according to Atherton’s online permit portal, which documented the new additions but didn’t mention corresponding square footages. While the revamp was underway, buyer Kitsune Manor LLC signed a presale contract with Pacific Peninsula to purchase the estate upon the project’s completion.

The buyer took out a 30-year, $15.6 million mortgage loan from a Morgan Stanley subsidiary to finance the acquisition, title service records show. It’s managed by a tax partner at law firm Frank Rimerman & Co., who didn’t respond to a request for comment. Pacific Peninsula didn’t respond as well. The deal closed Oct. 7.

The Britton Avenue sale is the fourth-priciest single-family residential trade in Atherton this year, while 95 Mesa Court is the seventh-priciest, according to Zillow data. Topping 191 Britton on Zillow’s list are three sales ranging from $36 million to $45 million that closed from February to May.

That $20 million homes are still selling in Atherton bucks the slowdown-in-sales trend happening elsewhere in San Mateo County and the Bay Area at large. While Atherton’s single-family sales volume dropped 38 percent between the second and third quarters, it increased nearly 79 percent from August to September, a larger uptick than 25 other San Mateo County submarkets, many of which saw sales volume drop during the latter period, according to MLSListings data.

The Britton Avenue and Mesa Court sales could be among the last significant ones to close in Atherton this year, as the Bay Area’s autumn selling season is already more than halfway over. The region typically sees a mid-winter slowdown in sales that runs from mid-November to mid-January, according to Compass’ latest San Mateo County market report. Assuming that holds, Atherton’s unofficial title as the county’s preeminent luxury home market seems set to remain through year’s end: The town has seen 36 sales of at least $10 million during the 12 months ending Sept. 20, more than double the next-highest total of 17 in Hillsborough, according to Compass data.

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