By Sarah Tilton and Katherine Clarke

Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt has paid $24 million for an apartment in a historic San Francisco co-op, according to people with knowledge of the deal.

Located in the Pacific Heights neighborhood, the home is on a high-floor in a Beaux-Arts building constructed around 1924.

The seller was retired shipping executive Chris R. Redlich, Jr., who paid $32 million for the apartment in 2015 and remodeled it, according to public records. The apartment listed for $35 million in March 2024. The most recent asking price was $24 million.

Schmidt, who has an extensive real-estate portfolio, bought the apartment as an investment, according to people familiar with the deal.

Redlich said his family has been in California since the Gold Rush, and the apartment initially served as his primary home. He spent significant time renovating it with interior designer Suzanne Tucker. "Like all remodels, it started out with us saying, 'Oh, let's just move this over there," he said. "It ended up as a complete design."

Measuring about 5,700 square feet, the three-bedroom apartment has wraparound terraces with views of the Golden Gate Bridge and the Bay Bridge. There are two kitchens: one for the family and one for catering. The private elevator landing opens to an octagonal domed entry.

Tucker, along with architect Andrew Skurman, reconfigured the space and added distinctly English details, modeling the marble floor in the entry after Kedleston Hall, a country house in England.

But by 2024, Redlich said, he had soured on San Francisco and on California. That same year, he paid $32 million for a home on 50 acres outside Nashville, Tenn.

"The taxes were too high relative to what we were getting," said Redlich. "I wouldn't put a business in California now on a bet."

After Covid, San Francisco felt like a "ghost town," he said, citing the city's homelessness issues and the rise of remote work.

Redlich expected to take a haircut on the price of his unit, he said, given the conditions in the wider San Francisco market.

"On my balance sheet, I'd already reserved a big discount on that place and our discount number was relatively close to what it ended up being," he said.

Annie Williams of Sotheby's International Realty, who wasn't involved in the deal, said single-family home sales in San Francisco are strong, but the market for condos and co-ops is weaker. "We are not building new single family homes in this city, but we are building new multiunit residences," she said.

The last sale in Redlich's building was in 2022, when a lower floor sold for $19 million after first being listed for $30 million, according to the local multiple listing service. Past residents of the 11-unit building have included financier Dean Witter, founder of investment firm Dean Witter & Co, and philanthropist Phyllis Wattis.

Gregg Lynn of Sotheby's International Realty represented the buyer and the seller in the Schmidt purchase.

Schmidt and his wife, Wendy Schmidt, own property all over the world. In 2024 they bought a mansion in London's Holland Park for approximately $55 million and plan to rent it out, according to people familiar with the portfolio. They also own homes in New York City, Los Angeles, Montecito, Calif., Rhinebeck, N.Y., Washington, D.C., Miami Beach, Fla., and Nantucket, Mass. In March the Schmidt Family Foundation bought a 350-acre property in Montecito with plans to preserve it as open space, according to people familiar with the deal.

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

June 11, 2025 18:45 ET (22:45 GMT)

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