A Billionaire’s Row home sandwiched between Gordon Getty’s mansion and the scenic Baker Street steps has sold for nearly half off its original $32 million asking price after sitting on the market for more than two years.
“What a difference 808 days makes,” said Max Armour of Compass, who co-listed with Karen Mendelsohn Gould.
The uphill journey that led to 2898 Broadway’s $17.75 million sale just prior to Thanksgiving “tracked the arc of San Francisco itself,” Armour said, from the lows of the purported “doom loop” and escalating interest rates freezing the market through last November’s elections and “the unstoppable rise of AI.”
The dramatic central staircase in the entry 
Original ceiling details in the grand living room, which leads out to the solarium
The 1899 home has certainly stood the test of time, surviving the 1906 earthquake mostly intact. It was built by St. Francis Hotel architect William Bliss for his parents — his father was a miner, lumber baron, and early Lake Tahoe tourism promoter — and is decked out in Gilded Age details, including a stately brick facade with a four-column portico, decorative ceilings throughout the entertaining spaces on the main floor, and a grand central staircase. A solarium off the living room was a later addition, created to take in the north-facing views of the Golden Gate Bridge and Palace of Fine Arts — neither of which existed when the home was built.
The solarium
The fifth-floor family room also takes advantage of the unobstructed views of the Golden Gate Bridge and Palace of Fine Arts. 
The skylit upstairs kitchen is also on the fifth floor.
Period details and a perch atop Pacific Heights have made the home a popular film set, starting with the 1960 neo-noir “Portrait in Black.” It was also featured in the 1985 Glenn Close thriller “Jagged Edge.” Scenes shot there for the 2001 Keanu Reeves-Charlize Theron romance “Sweet November” and the 2013 Academy Award-winner “Blue Jasmine” ended up on the cutting-room floor.
Tech investor Jim Willenborg and his wife, Barbara, bought the home in 1988 for just over $3.4 million, according to property records. The following year it served the first of two stints in the San Francisco Decorator Showcase, an annual fundraiser for University High School’s scholarship program in which top-tier designers transform a luxury home from top to bottom.
There is also a caterer’s kitchen on the main entertaining level two flights down.
In 2024, decorators from around the Bay were once again set loose on its 10 bedrooms, six full baths, eight fireplaces, and two kitchens, but unlike the case of the 2025 showcase home, the transformation failed to spur an immediate sale, even with about 20,000 people walking through.
The home was used in the 2024 SF Decorator Showcase, but was staged for sale with a more subdued palette.
Rather, the 11,000-square foot Dutch Colonial did not go into a contract until this fall, a few months after a price cut to $26 million. The listing agents said there were multiple offers but did not provide details. Joan Gorden at City Real Estate represented the buyers and said they were drawn to the house for its location and views.
The home is the third and cheapest along the city’s Gold Coast to sell in 2025, including San Francisco’s biggest sale since Laurene Powell Jobs bought her way onto Broadway for a record-breaking $71 million (opens in new tab) last year.
The property was built in a Dutch Colonial Revival style popular in the late 1890s.
Armour attributes the increased activity on Billionaire’s Row to tightening inventory and a renewed appreciation for the city.
“Perhaps our empathetic, diverse, dynamic, weird, culinary wonderland — this billionaire-making small fishing village — isn’t such a bad place to live after all,” he said.