Three years ago, Leslie Stretch bought a 10,800-square-foot mansion on San Francisco’s Russian Hill for $20 million. Last month, he sold it for half the price.
The former CEO of customer experience software company Medallia took a luxurious bath on the sale of the six-story house at 2626 Larkin Street, next to Pacific Heights, Business Insider reported. The buyer was not disclosed.
Stretch listed the house for $20 million in October last year, giving The Real Deal an exclusive peak, then reduced three times to $9.99 million. Leslie retired to an advisory role with the San Mateo-based firm in March.
The five-bedroom, eight-bathroom house was built in 2013 by hedge fund manager Chris Hansen. It has a bay view roof deck just around the corner from Lombard’s “crookedest” street.
The gray manse has a separate guest apartment one level below the main entrance.
Its main feature is a floating helix-shaped limestone staircase with hand-forged railings circling a three-story Venetian glass light fixture hanging from a central skylight. The Venini chandelier is said to cost $1 million.
There’s also a walnut-clad elevator that services all floors. Throughout the house, lime plaster walls rise from french white oak floors. A glass wall off the kitchen-family room leads out to a backyard with a pizza oven, quartz stone patio and a fireplace flanked by two bronze fountains.
The back of the house overlooks the garden, while the front, including the fourth-floor master bedroom and fifth-floor family room, has northwest views of the bay. Both have decks to take in the views, and there’s a panoramic view roof deck with a fire pit.
Leslie Stretch and his wife, Heather, spent hundreds of thousands of dollars upgrading the property with smart home features, such as an AV system and light switches. They also added lifts to make room for five cars in the three-car garage.
Tax records from this year show the property was assessed at a total value of $21 million, according to Business Insider.
The city’s housing market has been in the doldrums. The price for a typical house in San Francisco fell to $1.2 million in January, from a high of $1.6 million in April 2022, according to Redfin.
The market has since picked up, but prices were still down 5 percent year-on-year in November, Business Insider reported.
— Dana Bartholomew