Gap co-founder Doris Fisher in long contract on Atherton parcel

Doris Fisher, co-founder of the Gap, is in contract to sell a slice of her summer estate in the country’s wealthiest zip code. 

Located in the Menlo Circus Club neighborhood of Atherton, 178 Atherton Avenue is a 2-acre parcel of an 8-acre property that was once asking $100 million. It was split off from the bulk of the estate last summer with an asking price of $16.5 million and was listed on Redfin as “contingent” on Feb. 10 and “pending” on April 12. 

Mary and Brent Gullixson of Compass are the listing agents on the property but could not answer questions about why the sale has taken so long to close due to a non-disclosure agreement, according to a Compass representative. 

Don and Doris Fisher opened The Gap’s first store in San Francisco in 1969 and by 1975 they had purchased their first parcel of what would become an 8-acre property in Atherton, well before it became the nation’s wealthiest zip code. They paid about $211,000 for the first parcel and spent more than $17 million adding to their estate over the years, Mary Gullixson told the Wall Street Journal when the property first came to market asking $100M in September 2021. 

Last August, the smaller portion at 178 Atherton was severed from the rest of the property, which has a five-bedroom, four-bathroom main home on 4 acres, as well as a 2-acre sculpture garden on an adjoining parcel. 

Property records show that the Fishers bought 178 Atherton in 2004 for $8.35 million, five years before Don Fisher died at the age of 81. It has a Tudor-style 1939 home with three bedrooms and three baths that has been renovated down to the studs, according to the listing notes. It also comes with a one-bedroom guest house, for a total of more than 4,000 square feet. Tall hedges offer “complete privacy from the street,” according to the notes, which acknowledge the “outstanding opportunity to renovate and/or build” as one of the property’s main selling points. 

Land sales to developers have been active in Atherton this year, with two selling for more than $20 million.  

Proceeds from the sale of the estate will go to the Doris & Donald Fisher Foundation, a family representative told the Wall Street Journal when the property listed. The foundation focuses on increasing educational opportunities for underserved communities through the creation of charter schools and support of Teach for America programs.

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