Zynga founder Mark Pincus has listed his seven-bedroom San Francisco home for $18 million, and you can see it during an open house on Sunday.
Built in 1907, the seven-bedroom, six full- and f0ur-half-bath house features views of the Golden Gate bridge as well as other San Francisco icons, including Alcatraz, Mount Tamalpais, and the Marin Headlands. The Dutch Colonial Revival is located at 2950 Pacific Avenue, in San Francisco's Gold Coast--a spectacular enclave along the 2700, 2800, and 2900 blocks of Broadway--within the city's tony Pacific Heights neighborhood.
Pincus purchased the property for $16 million in 2012, according to Redfin's Alanna Finn, who tracks property records religiously.
"It's very unique to have a home of this caliber and location, and to have this open," says Maximillian Armour, the Coldwell Banker Previews International agent who shares the listing with fellow agent Malin Giddings. "It's a unique opportunity to have people come and see it."
The Pac Heights manor features two kitchens (one a service, the other the main kitchen), an exercise room, staff rooms, six fireplaces, and an elevator.
Until Pincus purchased it, the house had only two prior owners. Designed by architect Albert L. Farr, the home was commissioned by Virginia Whiting Newhall, wife of Edwin W. Newhall, a wealthy entrepreneur. She had lived through the 1906 earthquake and was quite concerned with structure, convinced that New England-style wooden architecture would better withstand earthquakes than the city's traditional Victorians. Farr's design included massive solid beams in the ceilings and woodwork all around. The top floor includes a "Captain's Room," an ode to Virginia Whiting Newhall's love of the ocean and sailing. The entire home features lots of woodwork and paneling, as well as diamond-patterned window panes. And true to Virginia's wish, it has lasted just fine through earthquakes, including Northern California's massive Loma Prieta in 1989, a 6.9 on the Richter scale.
The Newhall family owned the home for over 100 years, until the last remaining family member donated it to the local Calvary Church. The current owner (Armour would not confirm that it is Pincus) purchased it from the church.
Because the house lies at the end of a long drive, it actually can't be seen from Pacific Avenue. Rather, it sits close to the rear of the lot on Broadway. "That gives you the amazing views, and it does give you a south-facing garden," says Armour. "That's sort of the unicorn of San Francisco real estate: a house that has both a north view and a south garden."
Pincus, 48, currently has a net worth of $1.1 billion, according to Forbes. Shares of his social gaming company are trading at $2.86, down from a 12-month high of $5.79. Pincus' wealth has fluctuated with his company stock, which comprises the bulk of it. In the fall of 2011, Forbes Pincus' pegged net worth at $2 billion, placing him among that year's Forbes 400, our tally of the 400 richest Americans.
Pincus' wife Alison cofounded One Kings Lane, a flash sales site for home goods.
