Alphabet executive sells side-by-side houses in Palo Alto for $35M

Ruth Porat, an executive at Google parent corporation Alphabet, has sold two adjacent homes in Palo Alto for a combined $35.3 million — scarcely more than she and her husband paid a few years ago.

The British-born president and chief investment officer for the Mountain View-based tech giant and her husband, Anthony Paduano, acting through affiliates, sold the homes at 1950 and 1928 Cowper Street, the San Jose Mercury News reported.

The buyer was Christine Wade, acting as a trustee for two different trusts.

She purchased the 4,700-square-foot home at 1950 Cowper on behalf of Redtail Trust for $30.75 million. She bought the 1,900-square-foot house next door on behalf of Evergreen Trust for $4.53 million. It’s not clear whether Wade was the ultimate buyer of both homes.

Porat and Paduano bought the three-bedroom, five-bathroom house at 1950 Cowper in 2019 for $30 million, according to the Mercury News. Other sources say she bought it in 2015, marking the highest price paid for a home in Palo Alto.

The Spanish Colonial Revival house, built in 1932 for Levi Strauss heir and philanthropist Lucie Stern, sits on four-fifths of an acre, according to Palo Alto Stanford Heritage.

A passing photo of the property has been blotted out by Google Street View, a platform Porat oversees as an executive of Alphabet.

Two years later, the couple picked up the four-bedroom, two-bathroom house next door for $4.4 million. The Spanish Colonial Revival cottage, built in 1935, sits on less than a quarter acre. It’s visible on Google Street View.

Porat and Paduano paid a combined $34.4 million for the side-by-side homes — whose combined value rose less than 3 percent in their recent sale five and three years later.

The late architect, Birge Clark, who designed numerous high-profile buildings in Palo Alto and at Stanford University, designed both houses.

— Dana Bartholomew

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