House on Billionaire’s Row in SF gets $10M price chop

A Gold Coast home formerly owned by Zynga founder Mark Pincus and his then-wife, One Kings Lane founder Alison Pincus, has dropped its asking price by a third – from $30 million to $20 million – as it returns to the market this week.

The $20 million price tag represents $1,000 per square foot.

The couple bought the 20,000-square-foot home at 2950 Pacific Avenue in 2012 for $16 million, according to reporting at the time by the Wall Street Journal. It was the first time the Dutch Colonial had ever been on the market as it had been held in the same family since it was built in 1907.

The house was originally designed by architect Albert Farr, who created Jack London’s Wolf House in Sonoma along with many other San Francisco mansions of that era.

The Pincuses put the eight-bedroom, 13-bath estate on the market for $18 million in 2015. It sold to developer Troon Pacific for the same amount that they paid for it.

For over five years, Troon has made its way through the city’s onerous planning and permitting approval process and the 115-year-old home is now “shovel ready” for a major renovation with approved architectural plans and building permits, according to listing notes from Compass agent Neal Ward. The permits allow for two additional floors to be built below the structure, for a total of six stories, according to city documents.

The plans from architecture firm Snohetta, which also designed the expansion of the SFMOMA and the September 11 Memorial Museum, move the home’s entrance from Pacific to Broadway. That would officially put the home on “Billionaire’s Row,” a three-block stretch of Pacific Heights with some of the city’s best views and most expensive real estate.

The cost for the dug-down development at the time the permits were issued in 2021 was estimated at about $6.5 million, an amount that is likely well under what it would cost today as construction costs have skyrocketed and San Francisco has become the most expensive place to build on earth.

Ward did not reply to a request for comment on the $10 million price cut, but it is not the first substantial drop for one of his high-end listings recently as the market softens across the city, possibly for good according to Redfin’s chief economist.

At the end of August, Ward also cut $10 million off his Pacific Heights penthouse listing, saying via email that he and co-listing agent Malin Giddings wanted the now $35 million property to be “present and ready for the fall market.” Even at the lowered price, the penthouse is still the most expensive residential property on the market in the city.

Big price cuts on luxury listings began popping up with more frequency this summer, and others have gone off the market completely. A Seacliff home also listed by Ward that previously belonged to Sharon Stone came to market asking $39 million in May; it went off market at the end of July.

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