It’s been a long time since a multi-million dollar home came on the market in Berkeley. We’re not talking $1m, or even $2m or $3m, but up in the stratospheric $4 million-plus range. Last week, however, saw the appearance of a “Hamptons-style” pile on Grizzly Peak with a $4.2 million ticket-price.
The property was bought for a relative pittance ($248,000) five years ago and completely overhauled — effectively rebuilt from scratch.
While undoubtedly attractive, it isn’t a style of home one would associate with Berkeley. “Fully gated for privacy”, the 6-bedroom, 4++-bathroom property includes a separate guest cottage and has soaring walls of glass, “massive” columns, an outdoor marble tub, and integrated rotisserie and pizza ovens in the gourmet kitchen. Or, as the real-estate broker puts it: “Stunning grounds, stylish architecture and ultimate privacy combine to make 1530 Grizzly Peak the ultimate home for the discriminating homebuyer seeking a home to accent their lifestyle.”
That sort of asking price comes along fairly routinely in Piedmont, or occasionally in the Oakland hills. There are currently five listings in Piedmont priced over $4m, including the $6m, 8,000 sq ft home at 87 Sea View and, in Oakland, this $4.38m hilltop home which has been on the market, well, for ever.
Other notable mega-homes include the Upper Rockridge home of Green Day vocalist Billie Joe Armstrong which sold in November for $4.8m; and another, close by, the Margarido House, which is under contract on a $4.8m asking price.
The last Berkeley home we recall prompting sticker shock in this realm was a comprehensively revamped John Hudson Thomas-designed house at 683 Santa Barbara Road. It listed for a cool $5m in February 2007 and closed escrow nearly a year later for a reported $3.5m — not without its owners practically begging people to take the place off their hands for as little as $2.2m.
So, what are the chances this Grizzly Peak home will make its asking price?
