Danville estate of former Seahawks owner breaks record in $12M sale

Live auction of Ken Behring estate yields less than half the original asking price

Danville Estate of Former Seahawks Owner Sells for $12M

Ken Behring with 81 Eagle Ridge Place (Getty, Brian Kitts, Steven Magner, David Duncan Livingston)

Emily Landes

Jul 24, 2024, 6:00 PM

The estate of Blackhawk Country Club developer and former Seattle Seahawks owner Ken Behring has set a new record for Danville at just under $12.1 million.

At a live auction, the 4.5-acre property with 27,000 square feet went for less than half of what it listed for last year. But that was still high enough to become the most expensive residence in the history of the East Bay city, where the record sale outside of Blackhawk hit $8 million just this spring.

Compass agent Joujou Chawla, who specializes in Blackhawk listings, put the custom-built home at 81 Eagle Ridge Place on the market for $25 million last August. She declined to comment on the sale, which took place via Concierge Auctions online starting on June 28. It closed live at the Pendry Manhattan West hotel in New York in an event that included several other luxury homes on July 18.

Starting bids were expected in the $7 million to $11 million range, according to Krystal Aeby, president of Concierge Auctions, and ended up kicking off at $10 million. She would not say how many bidders participated in the sale, but the home ended up going up by a little more than $2 million from the starting bid.

Typically, some bidders see the home in person, and some only virtually, Aeby said.

“Our auctions are as-is, where-is transactions, meaning all diligence and showings must take place before bidding closes,” she explained.

The sale has not closed yet, and Aeby said it can take anywhere from one to four weeks, post-auction. Concierge keeps the winners of its auctions confidential, she added, and could not say whether the notable ownership had an impact on buyers’ interest in the property.

“Typically if a property is notable, this can be appealing to buyers,” she said. “At the end of the day, each individual buyer has their own motivations that drive interest, whether this is the location, lifestyle [or] aesthetics of the property itself.”

“Extravagant” home

Inspired by Frank Lloyd Wright’s acclaimed Falling Water home in Pennsylvania, the aesthetics of the property are certainly unique, with gardens and waterfalls throughout the interior and exterior. It was commissioned in 1987 by Blackhawk developer Behring, who would go on to buy the Seahawks a year later. He sold the team in 1997 to Paul Allen, co-founder of Microsoft.

Behring died in 2019, and his wife Pat died in 2022. Their custom estate has never come to market before and is “undoubtedly one of the more extravagant homes and a height of luxury and timeless aesthetic rarely reached within the gates of the country club,” according to Chawla’s marketing site for the property.

There are seven bedrooms, each with an en suite bath, including two detached one-bedroom, one-bath apartments with full kitchens and view decks. There are eight full and six half bathrooms as well.

The Behrings’ primary suite features a Bali-inspired ensuite bath and spa room with ferns, rock walls, a dual-sided fireplace, a soaking tub, a steam shower, a sauna, a retractable ceiling and a yoga/meditation room.

“The primary bedroom was the focal spot for my parents to relax and enjoy their time,” said their son, David Behring, in a marketing video for the property.

The primary suite also has a full kitchen, “discreetly located, making it convenient for those late-night snacks,” according to the website, and another hidden door that provides access to the pool.

In addition to the plaster pool, there’s also a spa meant to look like a natural lagoon, multi-level koi ponds, and a blue reflecting pool adjacent to an 18-foot high, 17-ton sculpture made of bronze, travertine and Italian marble in the center of the circular driveway.

Other outdoor amenities include a dining pavilion with a neon-lit glass ceiling, full kitchen and bar right next to the lighted tennis court with panoramic views of Mount Diablo that is cantilevered over the hillside.

That tennis court sits on top of a 7,000-square-foot granite-floor ballroom with nine chandeliers, and “a priceless collection of automobiles to be driven under the gleaming lights and take center stage,” according to the marketing site. There’s also a 10,000-bottle temperature-controlled wine room once featured in Wine Spectator Magazine. The wine and classic cars are not included in the sale, according to Concierge.

“My father enjoyed a lot of parties down there,” David Behring said in the video.