Listed for $32 million in 2010, the 16,400-square-foot Gold Coast home at 2701 Broadway ended up selling to celebrity chef Roxanne Klein and her entrepreneur/environmentalist husband Michael Klein (who once toured with The Dead) for $27 million in early 2012.
Designed by James Miller and built for a lumber magnate in 1910, an overhaul of the five-level mansion on the southwest corner of Broadway and Divisadero began in the late 1990s with Moller Willrich Architects leading the way.
The basketball court wasn’t an original feature.
And while the home has been on the market for the past few months asking $39 million, it has just been listed on the MLS with an official “1” day on the market at the very same price, a sale at which would make it the most expensive home in San Francisco.
never understood the practical need of a house so large for one family.
German cars, Apple computers, Swiss watches, luxury homes.. Practicality is not at the top of the list for these types of people.
German cars are perhaps the most practical cars around.
The owner is an “environmentalist”
“the 16,400-square-foot Gold Coast home at 2701 Broadway ended up selling to celebrity chef Roxanne Klein and her entrepreneur/environmentalist husband Michael Klein”
Exactly! I’d like to see an analysis of the carbon footprint left by the monthly heating bill, manufacturing all the “stuff” to fill that place, and transporting their inevitably huge household staff (some of them probably by auto).
This, from her bio at starchefs.com: “Roxanne is an active advocate of sustainable [sic] living in all its forms and has worked with a number of related organizations, including the Culinary Vegetable Institute (CVI) and the Rainforest Action Network. She has also directed the children’s cooking and gardening projects at her daughter’s school and manages her own three-acre vegetable garden and orchard in Marin County.”
So, I gather there will be three of them living in this mansion.
People who live in homes like this and call themselves “environmentalists” really have no clue.
It is absolutely beautiful. I was able to tour it in 2011(?) when it was listed with the previous owners. I know “timeless” is a cheesy realtor term, but this is one instance where it’s true.
With that said I think $39M is too high. I think it will fetch $30M+ but not $39M. If I’m right I’ll come back here to Socketsite to collect my sixpack of cyber beers.
It’s a beautiful property but not the best GC parcel, I still think they overpaid relative to the market in 2012.
That said, it’s a stronger market since they bought and will be hard for either the seller to rationalize or a buyer to argue why it should be worth less now.
Echo the sentiment above. Won’t be too surprised if it sells for over $30M (it only takes one) but will be shocked if it breaks $35M.
“never understood the practical need of a house so large for one family.”
It does not matter what the practical need is. This is the sort of comment that lefty SF Planning Commissioners have made, when turning down large apartments or “dwelling unit mergers” or parking. If the buyer can afford it and wants to buy it, they are free to do so. It is called a “free country.” The government’s proper role is to allow the market to act with a degree of fairness and decency. Taxes are used within a political process. But anyone who follows the rules and wants a big house or couture clothes or a work of art is free to buy with their own money. Whoever buys this will fit into that category.
However, for most people, even the richest people, there is a limit to how big a house they want. In that regard, I agree with matteo. When their art collections become too big for the house, they set up a museum in the garden!
Not many people have that many kids anymore, but the house has seven bedrooms. If there were, say, six family members living there, parents and four late teen/early adult kids, it’s not a really outlandish number of rooms and spaces, especially for people who entertain regularly, probably spend a fair amount of time working at home, often have visitors for extended periods and have staff on the premises almost all the time as well. The indoor gymnasium is a bit over the top.
The size of the median US single family home is 2306 sq ft. So at least 7 FAMILIES could comfortably live here.
I don’t think the families would be very comfortable living there. Most of them would be stuck in two or three rooms, albeit generously sized rooms. I’d hate to be the family who had to live in the basketball court.
Are you kidding? What child wouldn’t love living on a basketball court?!? Off topic, but there was a house in Presidio Terrace that did a big kids playroom with a basketball court theme (wood floors, maybe even an electronic scoreboard) — it looked like tons of fun.
How did they even come up with the list price. The house is beautiful, the price is just silly.
Well, they bought it for $27 million 3 years ago. Seems a little overpriced, but who knows?
The indoor basketball court would make a nice ballroom.
crzy to see this house on the market, I used to have hang out here when i was younger, they would throw middle school dances in the basketball court. It was also a sizable family, so the space, although large, seemed suitable.
UPDATE: Billionaires Row Mansion ‘Only’ Fetches $31M.