{"id":4115,"date":"2023-12-13T07:04:21","date_gmt":"2023-12-13T07:04:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/billingsrealtybrokers.paradiseinnovations.com\/index.php\/2023\/12\/13\/billionaires-bring-your-best-offer-san-francisco-bays-only-private-island-available-for-25m\/"},"modified":"2023-12-13T07:04:21","modified_gmt":"2023-12-13T07:04:21","slug":"billionaires-bring-your-best-offer-san-francisco-bays-only-private-island-available-for-25m","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/billingsrealtybrokers.paradiseinnovations.com\/index.php\/2023\/12\/13\/billionaires-bring-your-best-offer-san-francisco-bays-only-private-island-available-for-25m\/","title":{"rendered":"Billionaires, Bring Your Best Offer! San Francisco Bay\u2019s Only Private Island Available for $25M"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a><\/p>\n

Realtor.com<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

We\u2019re all familiar with the clich\u00e9 of the tech billionaire buying a private island<\/a>, but for Silicon Valley CEOs who have yet to snag their own slice of seclusion, an exciting opportunity just popped up in their own backyard.<\/p>\n

Red Rock Island<\/a>, a 5.8-acre piece of land situated in the San Francisco Bay, recently hit the market for $25 million. It\u2019s the only private island in the area and an untouched oasis of natural beauty, with panoramic views of the city, the Golden Gate Bridge, and Mount Tamalpais.<\/p>\n

\u201cRed Rock Island has long fascinated me as a mysterious and sought-after gem in the San Francisco Bay,\u201d says listing agent Chris Lim<\/strong>, global brand ambassador at Christie\u2019s International Real Estate. \u201cWhen approached by the seller to assist in finding a new caretaker for the island, I spent a day on this private sanctuary. I felt an undeniable connection to Northern California\u2014the rugged landscape, unspoiled beaches, and the deep, mesmerizing blue waters.\u201d<\/p>\n

Red Rock Island in the San Francisco Bay is for sale.<\/p>\n

Realtor.com<\/p>\n

The island offers views of San Francisco, the Golden Gate Bridge, and Marin County.<\/p>\n

Realtor.com<\/p>\n

5.8 acres of private land<\/p>\n

Realtor.com<\/p>\n

Aerial view<\/p>\n

Realtor.com<\/p>\n

A private island with an intriguing history<\/h2>\n

According to San Francisco folklore, Spanish pirates used Red Rock Island as a safe place to stash their treasure. But the first confirmed use of the island was in 1812 by Russian and Aleut fur hunters who camped there while looking for otters.<\/p>\n

The only known resident of Red Rock Island was Selim Woodworth<\/strong>, a former California senator and son of the popular 19th-century poet Samuel Woodworth<\/strong>, who built a cabin there and maintained a hunting preserve.<\/p>\n

The current owner is Brock Durning<\/strong>, a retired former Bay Area resident who inherited the island from his late father, Mack Lewis Durning<\/strong>, in 2012.<\/p>\n

Brock\u2019s father was granted ownership of the island by his business partner,\u00a0David Glickman<\/strong>, an eccentric San Francisco attorney\u00a0who had purchased the vacant island for just under $50,000 in 1963. Although the Durning family never inhabited the island, they used it as a getaway and would pitch tents on the beach and go hiking and fishing.<\/p>\n

The property seller, Brock Durning, as a child with his father and brothers on Red Rock Island in 1979<\/p>\n

Brock Durning<\/p>\n

Throughout the years, Red Rock Island has been advertised for sale in various Bay Area newspapers, starting in 1955 when the property was listed with no price. It appeared in print again in 1979 for $1.5 million and was listed once more in 2001 for $10 million. And while the island has come close to changing hands only a few times, there was one noteworthy individual who allegedly planned to buy it in the 1980s.<\/p>\n

Durning told the San Francisco Chronicle in 2009 that Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh<\/strong>, the controversial leader of the Rajneeshpuram commune in Oregon and subject of the 2018 hit\u00a0Netflix series \u201cWild Wild Country,\u201d planned to purchase the island until he was deported in 1985.<\/p>\n

How can the island be used?<\/h2>\n

Whoever buys Red Rock Island will have earned the right to decide how it\u2019s used, but developing it is not as straightforward as you might assume.<\/p>\n

\u201cRed Rock Island occupies three separate Bay Area counties because it was established as a triangulation point by surveyors in 1850 and, per the seller, San Francisco is zoned residential, Contra Costa is zoned industrial, and Marin is zoned general use,\u201d says Lim. \u201cStructures can be built on the island, but the future owner would have to navigate permitting in those jurisdictions.\u201d<\/p>\n

Over the years, several suggested uses for the island have emerged.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere have been proposals to conserve the island, develop it into a hotel, and to remove the rock from the top of the island and use it for highway construction,\u201d Lim says. \u201cIn the 1970s, there was discussion about purchasing the island for building a Playboy Club. There was also a proposal presented for development of the island, complete with a wedding chapel, geodesic domes, marina, and helicopter pad\u2014but none of these proposals came to fruition.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another challenge that a buyer will have to contend with is the lack of established utilities.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe island doesn\u2019t have electricity or running water, but desalination, solar panel, and satellite systems are used on other private islands,\u201d says Lim.<\/p>\n

Despite the aforementioned obstacles, owning the infamous Red Rock Island is a dream that seems particularly fitting for this generation of billionaires who would likely get a kick out of pointing to a rocky mass in the water (perhaps from a private helicopter?) and casually announcing, \u201cSee that island? I own that.\u201d<\/p>\n

The post Billionaires, Bring Your Best Offer! San Francisco Bay\u2019s Only Private Island Available for $25M<\/a> appeared first on Real Estate News & Insights | realtor.com\u00ae<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Realtor.com We\u2019re all familiar with the clich\u00e9 of the tech billionaire buying a private island, but for Silicon Valley CEOs who have yet to snag their own slice of seclusion, an exciting opportunity just popped up in their own backyard. Red Rock Island, a 5.8-acre piece of land situated in the San Francisco Bay, recently…Read More→<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":4116,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4115","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/billingsrealtybrokers.paradiseinnovations.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4115","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/billingsrealtybrokers.paradiseinnovations.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/billingsrealtybrokers.paradiseinnovations.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/billingsrealtybrokers.paradiseinnovations.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4115"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/billingsrealtybrokers.paradiseinnovations.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4115\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/billingsrealtybrokers.paradiseinnovations.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4116"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/billingsrealtybrokers.paradiseinnovations.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4115"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/billingsrealtybrokers.paradiseinnovations.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4115"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/billingsrealtybrokers.paradiseinnovations.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4115"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}