The vine-covered exterior of 67-69 Belcher near Duboce Park | Source: Emily Landes/ The Standard
Is it possible to have too much space in San Francisco? It’s one thing to read a listing touting nearly 20,000 square feet in one of the city’s most desirable neighborhoods. It’s quite another to actually walk into the vine-covered former furniture factory at 67-69 Belcher St. between Duboce Park and the Castro.
Owner Howard Epstein, a City Real Estate agent, has seen the reality sink in dozens of times since listing the two-unit residential loft for sale for about $6.34 million in July 2025. The surge of initial interest led him to raise the price to almost $7 million that September.
“A lot of people had a lot of interesting ideas,” he said, including numerous startup founders and VCs. “Once they’re inside and they spend some time there, it’s just daunting. People don’t realize what 20,000 square feet looks like.”
For context, it’s the equivalent of about four NBA courts, seven tennis courts, or one-and-a-half Olympic-size swimming pools.
The arched living room ceiling is 20 feet high. | Source: Courtesy Howard Epstein
It took a year of regular showings, during which he got just one low-ball offer, before the right buyers finally walked in.
“It was never really a price issue,” he said. “It was just finding the person who didn’t shy away from the sheer amount of work required.”
The property sold Sept. 25 for nearly $6.8 million to Paul Mercer, one of the early innovators of the iPod, and his wife, Elizabeth McEnroe, a 20-year veteran of Apple, according to public records.
Mercer was an early Apple employee who left in 1994 to start his own software firm, Pixo. In 2001, Apple used Pixo’s software to upgrade the user interface for its signature music player, and two years later Pixo was acquired by Sun Microsystems. Mercer’s next company, Inventor, was acquired by Palm in 2007.
The couple declined to comment on the purchase of the two, two-floor buildings, each with about 10,000 square feet, 20-foot ceilings, and a large garage. They were represented by Justin Goldberg at Compass. He declined to confirm his clients’ identities but said the all-cash purchase came quickly after about six years looking for investment opportunities.
From the outside, it’s hard to tell that the property is a two-unit residence. | Source: Emily Landes/ The Standard
The patio at 67 Belcher has a basketball court and a hot tub. | Source: Courtesy Howard Epstein
“They’ve been looking throughout the whole city for something unique like this. They weren’t planning to acquire this much square footage for this price point,” Goldberg said, adding that the prime neighborhood sealed the deal.
After a year on the market, the deal happened so quickly that Epstein is still trying to figure out what to do with all the construction material and equipment he keeps in one of the units, which he had been pitching in his listing notes as usable for everything from classic car storage to an indoor pickleball court.
The other unit is built out with six bedrooms and five bathrooms and is rented to one master tenant paying $12,500 a month, with six friends as subtenants.
“You definitely need roommates, that’s for sure,” Epstein said of filling up the space, which also has a patio with a hot tub and outdoor basketball court.
What comes next is an open question. There have been several plans for the property since the warehouse was rezoned residential in the 1980s by artists and partners Spaulding Taylor and Winfred Ng, who owned the Taylor & Ng department store.
Ng died in 1991, before building out his side of the property. Epstein and his construction partners bought the buildings for $4.9 million in 2021 and spent years entitling it for a 31-unit condo development, designed by Stanley Saitowitz.
One of the six bedrooms, with a lofted sleeping area above a work space. | Source: Courtesy Howard Epstein
By the time it was greenlit, the project no longer made economic sense given the cost and interest rate increases. Epstein and his partners listed the property, figuring they could always pull it off the market if interest rates came down; instead they went up, but so did the overall enthusiasm of San Francisco buyers and developers.
“Maybe there’s somebody else that has a better game plan than we have,” Epstein said.
Goldberg said his clients’ purchase is too new for much of a game plan to have developed.
“They’re very open to the possibilities,” he said. “For them, it was a really nice discretionary purchase.”