As we outlined last year, the advertised “No Reserve” auction for the 140-acre “King Mountain Estate” site, an assemblage of six Marin parcels stretching from Kentfield to Larkspur, upon which a local rock god had planned to build a modern 19,000-square-foot home, quietly ended without an accepted offer and the property quietly returned to the MLS with a $25 million list price, a price which includes the approved plans, but not the budget, for the construction of a 27,500-square-foot “legacy compound” atop the site.
Originally listed for $39 million back in 2015, the asking price for the “once-in-a-lifetime opportunity” is now down to $21 million, positioned as “the Bay Area’s LAST real estate equivalent of the Tech Unicorn that entrepreneurs and investors dream of creating.”
Beautiful site. Would be so sad to see a monstrosity like that built there.
So what would you build there? If it is zoned residential better to have 1x 1/2 acre building in the middle of 140 acres, than 6 separate 1/2 acre homes that I am sure would be easily supported on each site.
“See” as in you or anyone else would ever see it unless in a plane? I’d argue this is a far better use than as mentioned by DCR. It’s not as though it’s choking nature or impeding whatsoever.
I used to smoke weed here in high school. The views are impressive!
Funny story, Lars had built a bunch of decks across the property so he could experience the views from different perspectives. One day a small group of us were hanging out on one of the decks smoking a huge bong while sitting on his lounge chairs. A de-badged benz drove up the dirt road and parked right next to us. There was nowhere to go so we just sat there and Lars walked up to us and was pretty cool about the whole thing.
If I remember correctly, he purchased the property via a sealed bid auction where he out-bid a developer who wanted to build 20 houses on the parcel. His purchase coincided with the Napster settlement.
I love this story! Thanks for sharing!
This would be an amazing property for a helicopter lover / pilot / passenger. Reminds me a bit of a prominent VC from this latest boom who lives in Big Sur and visits the Bay Area or LA by piloting himself via chopper.
Bill Graham had a helicopter pad at his Mill Valley house. That didn’t work out very well for him.
I’m glad Mr. Ulrich didn’t go through with his designed mansion. Something tells me it would have been engineered very poorly.
The best thing for this parcel is a conservation easement.
From a land use and neighborhood perspective, your suggestion is a good one, but:
1) The County would lose today’s large annual property tax payment. After the change of ownership and the construction of some (hopefully not too grotesque) grand “compound”, the assessed value would make those payments really large. OK, Marin County’s rich, but it’s still a lot of money. Think of “The Children”, etc. Besides, there is hardly a lack of open space in Marin.
2) Parking and access would be a problem; I suspect some road widening, and building a parking lot somewhere on the property. That sort of thing would be solvable in any normal community, but over there you might as well try to build an oil refinery.