Twitter Tycoon Jack Dorsey Gets a Serious Real Estate Upgrade

BUYER: Jack Dorsey
LOCATION: San Francisco, CA
PRICE: $9,900,000
SIZE: 3,734 square feet, 2 bedrooms, 2.5 bathrooms

YOUR MAMAS NOTES: Bay Area real estate gossips are all atwitter today over the (as yet unconfirmed) scuttlebutt about Twitter (and Square) co-creator Jack Dorsey dropping nearly ten million clams on an mid-century modern-minded residence alarmingly cantilevered over a nearly sheer and rocky bluff in San Francisco's quietly swanky (and often socked in with fog) Seacliff neighborhood.

The redwood-sided residence in question first appeared on the open market way back in June 2008 with an in-hind-sight painfully rose-tinted asking price of $18,000,000. Almost four years and dozen whacks with the pricing scythe brought the final asking price down to $9,900,000, the exact amount property records show the house was most recently purchased by a corporate entity in early February 2012 that may (or may not) be linked to Mister Dorsey.

The relatively reserved Digital Age visionary, 35 years old and worth close to three-quarters of a billion dollars, (allegedly) upgraded to his living circumstances, trading in his comparatively humble penthouse-level downtown loft for this sophisticated, grown-up and almost histrionically-sited house, an architectural cousin, perhaps, to the earthy, utterly sublime and exceedingly expensive Post Ranch Inn in Bug Sur (CA). Listing information (and other online resources) show the house measures in at 3,734 square feet with just 2 bedrooms and 2.5 bathrooms plus a separate, windowed office nook located off the main living area and probably convertible in a pinch to a somewhat compact bedroom.

Shortly after the property was first listed to a fair amount of fawning and fanfare, the ever-industrious kids at Curbed related a few fascinating historical tidbits about the property (via the original listing) which Your Mama will, in turn, relate to the children who haven't already read all about it. So the story goes, in 1948 Frank Lloyd Wright may (or may not) have designed a rather dramatic, ice-cream cone-shaped house on the site for a man named V.C. Morris who owned an eponymous downtown gift shop housed in a ground-breaking building designed—also in 1948—by the forward-thinking (and autocratic) Mister Wright. Back in late 1998 Christie's auctioned a colored exterior rendering of the proposed residence with an estimate of $12,000-$18,000. It sold for $32,200.

While Mister Wright's soaring residential vision was not realized what was eventually designed and built in 1965 is most certainly, no matter what you think of the boxy modern architecture and stale day-core, an outright thrilling, panty-dropping work of engineering genius. We can't imagine the powerful California Coastal Commission would allow such an startlingly situated house to be built today but then again situated not so far from Mister Dorsey's (alleged) new digs there's a bluff top mansion between China and Baker beaches with a swimming pool nestled in to the craggy cliff half way down to the ocean from the house. Imagine what it cost, children, to engineer and construct that cement pond and then sit down and ponder the amount of money required to keep that particular pool heated for comfortable use in the biting cold and thick fog of a typical San Francisco summer. It boggles and betwixts the brain, don't it?

Anyhoo, the existing, low-slung and flat-roofed single-story house, hidden down a curved and sloped driveway behind an old-growth redwood drive gate set into an old-growth redwood fence, looks well-tended with expensively updated kitchen and bathrooms. The day-core as seen in listing photographs, on the other hand, is tired and uninspired but that's really no matter at all because Mister Dorsey, with the expensive assistance of a talented nice-gay or lady decorator, can easily swap out the awful wall-to-wall carpeting and all the oddly anachronistic (but probably museum-quality antique) light fixtures.

What Mister Dorsey did (allegedly) buy is a large living/dining room over which looms a retractable, 20-foot square sky light (above, top). That's right kids, that pyramid-shaped sky light slides open at the mere touch of a button to theatrically expose the interior of the house to the salty sea air and sparkling stars.

An over-sized, center island eat-in kitchen off the dining room area (above, lower left) has, according to listing information we peeped, beveled Beauharnais limestone floors, custom-built Brazilian blood-wood cabinetry, Volga-blue granite counter tops, top-grade appliances and fixtures, and jaw-dropping head-on views of the the Golden Gate Bridge and the Marin Headlands across the wind-torn mouth of the San Francisco Bay.

The spacious family room, (melo)dramatically set the farthest out over the all-but-vertical bluff than any other part of the house, has two full walls of floor-to-ceiling windows with heart-stopping ocean, bay and bridge views, a massive river rock fireplace wall, and a ring of celestory-style windows. The glass wall at the end of the room slides open to a small but for-the-brave-only deck girdled for maximum visual impact (and vertigo) with a waist high glass panel railing. The bottoms of Your Mama feet sweat uncontrollably at the mere thought of stepping out on to that balcony in a stiff wind.

The lone guest/family bedroom has direct access to an en suite facility and a second, pyramid-shaped sky light for in-bed star gazing. As far as we know, which ain't a thing, the sky light in the guest/family bedroom is not retractable. The master suite, just off the main living/dining area (above), floor-to-ceiling corner windows with through tree top views of the bay and bridge and a dressing area custom-fitted with cabinets and vanity of an unknown kind but exotic looking burled wood. The attached, updated private bathroom has a lot of cream colored stone, double sinks flanked by full-height toiletry and linen cabinets (that look like the same burled wood as in the dressing area), a soaking tub set into a bay of frosted windows and a separate shower with a mossy-green tinted frosted glass panel.

While outdoor space looks limited on the water/bluff side of the house, and at least some of the outdoor space at the front of the house is directly visible from the neighboring mansion, there is a small, knock-your-socks off deck up on the roof. We're not sure how exactly one accesses the roof deck—and Your Mama would most assuredly need a gin & tonic (or two) and a fat Xanax to muster the courage to go up there—but whatever it takes to get up there is well worth the effort (and hangover) because, children, that is the exact sort of view Northern California real estate dreams are made of. Sure, the nearly omnipresent fog that enshrouds Seacliff (and much of San Francisco) probably hinders one's ability to actually see that view a significant amount of the time, but when the fog clears, BAM!

Listing information indicates there are plans (if not approvals) to add an additional 3,000 square feet of living space above the existing house and, of course, we haven't any idea if Mister Dorsey plans to make such a radical alteration to the existing structure.

Until March of this year low-key and low-profile Mister Dorsey owned (and presumably occupied) what Vanity Fair magazine described as an "austere" apartment on Mint Plaza, a new(ish) public space tucked behind the old mint building in the heart of San Fran's homelessville. Don't any of you San Franciscans get all uppity with Your Mama for saying that. We heart us some San Francisco like a newborn loves its momma's nipple. Your Mama lived there, once upon a time in our long-ago youth, in a splendid if mildly shabby Art Deco building known as the Allen Arms and we visit regularly so we (sort of) know of what we speak; The immediate area around Fifth and Sixth Streets just south of Market were Mint Plaza is located may not be the skin-crawling and nose-hair curling skid row it once was but it can still be a pretty unsavory pocket of the downtown area despite the Abercrombie and Fitch store, the growing plethora of pricey locavore eateries, and the fancy-pants Blue Bottle coffee shop. Is there anything more uncomfortable (or quintessentially San Francisco) than sipping on a certified organic, $77 single-origin thimbleful of coffee and being panhandled by a one-shoed woman wearing a house dress rendered cardboard stiff with street filth? Hush up! Y'all know it's true.

Anyhoo, property records and other online documentation show Mister Dorsey paid $925,000 for a 1,199 square foot loft-type conversion in March 2009. In January of this year (2012) the 10th floor 1 bedroom and 1 bathroom aerie was listed for $1,100,000 and sold in early March for an even-steven $1,000,000.

Listing photos we enticed up out of the internets show the loft has exposed concrete and plaster walls, high-gloss acid-stained concrete floors, high ceilings, big double-hung windows, open kitchen with center work island and glass-topped snack counter, a bedroom with walk-in closet, laundry closet, one bathroom and wood and metal spiral staircase that twists up to a private roof terrace with city and peek-a-boo bay views.

listing photos (Mint Plaza): Decker Bullock Sotheby's
listing photos (Seacliff): Decker Bullock Sotheby's

Your Mama Hears...

...from a well-connected New York City snitch—let's call her Anna F. Laxis—that recently retired chat show queen turned struggling television network owner Oprah Winfrey has been peeping posh apartments and pricey penthouses on the Upper West Side for possible purchase as a pied-a-terre.

Miss Fabrique, who has many times provided Your Mama with dead-on accurate celebrity real estate scuttlebutt, wasn't specific as to Miz Winfrey's price range or list of desirable features but did whisper that the self-made multi-media billionairess went for a look-see at at least one expensive apartment at the storied Apthorp building on West End Avenue.

Anyone who cares an eeny-weeny whit about New York City real estate knows the Apthorp is a hulking and imposing, Renaissance Revival-style pre-war pile that occupies an entire city block and has a long history of celebrity residents including Al Pacino, Conan O'Brien, Cyndi Lauper, Rosie O'Donnell, 60 Minutes journalist Steve Kroft and Nora Ephron who wrote a long, bleating paean to her real estate love affair with the building published in The New Yorker.

The full-service building, built around a massive, landscaped courtyard/motor court with a stately, three-floor high rusticated limestone base, was a luxurious but somewhat bedraggled rental property until 2008 when—much to the angry tirades of many–the building went condo, super high-end condo where current asking prices for the largest apartments hovers around $2,400 per square foot.

A couple weeks ago Your Mama discussed some of Miz Winfrey's most recent real estate activities that include (re-)listing a co-operative in a dignified Beaux-Arts building in Chicago—it's now in escrow or contract or whatever they do in Chicago—and continuing to spend tens of millions buying up of property around her secluded and sprawling, multi-residence ranch-compound on the Hawaiian island of Maui. We've also heard she might like a place to rest her head in Los Angeles where her OWN offices are located but we don't have any current intel on that situation. 

Merv Griffin's La Quinta Horse Ranch Up For Grabs

SELLER: Estate of Merv Griffin
LOCATION: La Quinta, CA
PRICE: $9,500,000
SIZE: 39+ acres, 14 bedrooms and 12 bathrooms (total).

YOUR MAMAS NOTES: Real Housewives of Wherever watchers may recall a season or two ago when Orange County-based cosmetics and handbag pusher Gretchen Rossi and her financially troubled man-friend Slade Smiley hopped in her Range Rover and high-tailed it out to California's hot-as-Hades Coachella Valley where they (along with her seemingly very nice parents) spent a couple of sunny days shacked up in a big house on an equestrian estate in La Quinta, CA owned by the estate of deceased Showbiz mogul and hotel magnate Merv Griffin. Remember that? No? Well, they did...

Mervyn "Merv" Griffin went to meet his Great Executive Producer in the Sky in 2007 and since then his sprawling, horse-oriented spread in La Quinta has been available as a short-term rental and last week, not surprisingly, the property popped up for sale on the open market with an asking price of $9,500,000.

The one-time big band singer turned talk show host turn powerfully connected tycoon, married to a lady for nearly 20 years and long-linked to Hungarian-born actress and social gadabout Eva Gabor but (allegedly) an active if essentially closeted homosexual, had a long and industrious career that made him a billionaire and besties a lot of very influential and chi-chi people like Ronald and Nancy Reagan; Although the casket was actually moved about buy a bunch of hunky, uniform wearing military men, Mister Griffin was listed an honorary pallbearer at President Reagan's 2004 funeral.

In addition to pioneering the modern-day talk show (The Merv Griffin Show), the entertainment industry legend created a number of long-running, exceedingly-successful and enormously-lucrative game shows including the still-running-at-light-speed juggernauts Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune. In 1979 Mister Griffin developed the dance contest program called Dance Fever—which Your Mama watched wide-eyed and religiously for years—hosted by a slim-hipped, disco-dancing stud named Deney Terrio who later (unsuccessfully) sued Mister Griffin for man-on-man sexual harassment.

At some point, Mister Griffin began to invest in high-end hotels and some sort of closed-circuit television something-or-other used in off-track betting sites that earned him a fortune. Over time he owned a handful of famous (and infamou)s hotels including The Beverly Hilton, where troubled songstress Whitney Houston met her maker in the bathtub of her luxury suite last year; Resorts Hotel and Casino in Atlantic City (NJ), bought from long-time rival Donald Trump; the Merv Griffin Givenchy Resort & Spa in Palm Springs (CA), now the still-super-fab Jonathan Adler-decorated Parker; and Paradise Island in the Bahamas, formerly known as the less inviting Hog Island and bought by Mister Griffin from Donald Trump for $400,000,000 and sold some years later for just $125,000,000 to currently financially embattled South African resort developer Sol Kerzner who, as it turns out, recently unloaded the resort in a debt-for-equity restructuring situation far too complicated and uninteresting for Your Mama to make heads or tails.

Property records we peeped are a bit unclear as to the details but various reports and other online documentation on the matter indicate Mister Griffin purchased and custom-built his equestrian-centric desert compound in La Quinta sometime in the 1980s. La Quinta, for those who don't know, oozes out over the desert valley floor about 25 miles down Highway 111 from Palm Springs. The community is comprised largely of gated, golf-oriented developments favored by snowbirds, well-to-do retirees, and conventioneers.

Current listing information and the myriad of reports already floating about regarding the listing of Mister Griffin's estate indicate the entirely-walled and electronically-gated compound spans just over 39, pancake flat (but almost entirely landscaped/developed) desert acres. A long driveway snakes through the property to a two-tiered, double circular drive at the front of the Merv's main mansion.

Altogether, according to listing information, the compound has 14 bedrooms and 12 bathrooms, but only two of the bedrooms (and an unknown number of the poopers) are located in the approximately 5,000 square foot main house, an architecturally confounding white stucco single story affair with an unfortunate, teal tile roof and airy interiors worked over in a modern Moroccan manner by A-list decorator Waldo Fernandez. Mister Fernandez, in case it matters to y'all, also did up the day-core in all six of the (fully detached) guest houses. That's right, six. More on those in a minute.

A considerable chunk of the main house is taken up by a cavernous, boo-teek hotel-lobby-sized living/dining room (above, top) with 20-foot ceiling and 1,200 square feet of tile-floors, mostly hidden by one, epically-scaled area rug. The capacious space has multiple seating areas—note the back-to-back sofa and smattering of well-worn woven wicker pieces; a modern-minded, mantel-free, wood-burning fireplace; three long banks of towering windows divided by equally towering planted palms; a high-gloss grand piano; round dining table for 12; and a domed, circular sky light that slides open at the touch of a button. That sky light is perfect for releasing the hot friction and frisson generated by the exact sort of crush of high-wattage people Mister Griffin could probably summon on a moments notice with little more than a snap of the fingers.

A short corridor off the dining end of the room connects to a (no-doubt) well-stocked wet bar and a surprisingly compact but well-equipped kitchen (above, bottom). The relatively wee(ish) size of the kitchen is somewhat mitigated by the soaring, barrel vaulted ceiling and a large window set into a wall slathered in the same granite as the counter tops looks out on to a broad terrace and a tightly clustered quartet of circular guest casitas.

The floors in Mister Griffin's master boo-dwar are, we see, a rather fetching, over-sized hexagonal tiles almost the exact same shade of linen-y white as just about everything else in the pale and fairly sparely furnished space. A fireplace at one end of the room is flanked by a pair of slip-covered chairs and a wrought iron four-poster bed at the other end is attended on either side by a slip-covered night table and identical, jewel-toned stained glass doors that open—we think but can not confirm—to Mister Griffin's private office and lounge.

The office/lounge, as seen in various photos floating around on the interweb has at least two walls lined floor-to-ceiling with custom-built wood book cases filled to the gills with framed photographs of all his famous friends and associates including Larry King, Johnny Carson and—natch—Nancy and Ronald Reagan. French doors set into an angled corner of the room open up to a private terrace with built-in fire pit.

The main house's lone guest bedroom looks much like the master with a wrought iron four-poster bed, fireplace, stained glass lantern light, built-in cabinetry and a custom-built cabinet at the foot of the bed out of which pops a flat screen tee-vee. The bathrooms—at least the ones in the main house—have downright spectacular mosaic tile sinks and counter tops as well as decoratively drool-worthy hammered metal fixtures (of unknown metallic material).

Each of the four circular guest casitas (above), set across a plaza-sized terrace from the main house, has an inset porch, bedroom with sitting area and fireplace, private bathroom and wet bar. Two more far flung guest houses each have three bedrooms according to listing information and there are two additional living spaces tacked on to each end of the 16-stall stable.

A water channel cut into the concrete terrace between the main house and guest casitas tumbles down a wide flight of stairs where it empties into an arching and bulbous, infinity-edged swimming pool. This water channel is certainly an interesting way to stitch together the vast and multi-level terraces that wrap around the back of the house but Your Mama worries that some boozy, bikini-clad queen might snag her kitten heel and take a tumble while attempting to step across the channel with a cigarette between her lips and a Danielle Steel novel tucked under her arm. Can you spell lawsuit?

The terraces step down to a private 2.5(ish) acre private pond stocked with fish. A roofed pavilion that hovers over the water's edge is where Mister Griffin parked his swan-shaped and—let's be honest—campy paddle boat. Beyond the grassy, palm-tree dotted landscaped grounds that surround the main house (and guest houses) the property turns in to an honest to goodness equestrian facility with white-fenced paddocks and grazing pens, a race track, 16-stall barn and various other outbuildings and barns.

While Mister Griffin's horsey estate is certainly luxurious and well-equipped (if in some need of a freshening up or face lift) but it is not, in some ways for the meteorologically feint of heart. Today's expected temperature in La Quinta according to our iPhone app: 108. Tomorrow's expected temperature is set at 106, and then back up to 108 again for a couple days. And it's only June.

In addition to his desert spred, Mister Griffin owned and maintained a large number of residences and estates including a vineyard in Carmel, CA that Your Mama (dissed and) discussed back in early 2007 when it was on the open market with an asking price of $6,200,000.

Right now, a privately situated, 2.5(ish) acre estate with a 5,500 square foot house in Bel Air not so far from Mariah Carey's west coast crib—and currently marketed as the "Previously owned by Merv Griffin (and currently owned by a major Hollywood celebrity)"—is being shopped off-market with a $6,995,000 asking price.

For many years, according to the friendly fellas at The Movieland Directory, Mister Griffin long owned one of the most prominent mansions in the rather much-maligned Mount Olympus neighborhood above Hollywood and, also as per the fellas at The Movieland Directory, Mister Griffin also once owned (or occupied) a mansion on the corner of Bedford and Lomitas in Beverly Hills where in 1958 Cheryl Crane stabbed to death her mother Lana Turner's gangster-associated paramour Johnny Sompanato.

P.S. Until they get taken down, lots and lots more photos of the property can be found here and here.

listing photos: Coldwell Banker Previews International

In Other Restaurateur Related Real Estate News...

It was a week or more ago now that Your Mama received a brief and covert communique from Our Fairy Godmother in Bel Air who relayed to Your Mama that scuttlebutt on the Platinum Triangle real estate street is that high-profile, Los Angeles-based (former) restaurateur and hotelier Peter Morton dropped just shy of $25,000,000 for an off-market fixer-upper perched prominently on a long promontory high above the back fairways and greens of the Bel-Air Country Club.

Mister Morton, of course, co-founded the heavily merchandised Hard Rock Café chain (sold in the mid-1990s for $410 million), opened the Hard Rock Hotel in Las Vegas (sold to Morgans Hotel Group in 2006 for $770 million) and, for nearly 3 decades, owned one of Tinseltown's most popular and difficult to get in to power lunch hot spots, Morton's (shuttered in 2007).

Property records, at least the ones we peeped, do not yet reflect a transfer of ownership of the Bel Air estate in question but they do show the 1.5 story, many-dormered mansion—it might (or might not) be French Provincial—was originally built in 1936, measures 7,692 square feet and contains 7 bedrooms and 8 bathrooms. Those numbers may (or may not) accurately reflect the current size and configuration of the existing residence.

Other bits and pieces of information about the property we gleaned during our interweb research shows the house has a double-gated, parking lot sized motor court; a flat lawn that wraps around three sides of the house; various covered and open-air stone terraces and walkways; a swimming pool with adjacent cabana; and a waterfall of terraced gardens and sterling views over Los Angeles from downtown to the ocean. 

Some of the nearby mansions are owned by smoldering-eyed fashion designer Tom Ford, Tinseltown legend Clint Eastwood, boo-toob bigwig Darren Star (Sex and the City, Beverly Hills, 90210—the original one—and Melrose Place), and former rom-com queen Meg Ryan who has—so the story goes—just about sold her rambling Spanish-style mansion she's on the market for some time.

Again, children, property records do not yet reflect a transfer of ownership so for now this is just some high end real estate rumor and gossip. There isn't, however, a dedicated Platinum Triangle property watcher who should be the least be surprised by the alleged purchase since Mister Morton regularly shakes up his property portfolio, and with all that shaking he's hardly a been stranger to the property gossip columns.

The children may recall that in February 2010 Mister Morton—not to be confused with his son Harry who owns a couple of epic-sized Mexican eateries luridly-named Pink Taco and also trades expensive Los Angeles area properties at a whiplash pace—sold a dour and musty-looking Tudor-style pile in Beverly Hills for $22,950,000 to superstar actress Sandra Bullock. He bought the hilltop spread in September of 2006 for $18,500,000 and was said to have big plans to do it up big but, as far as we know, never moved in.

Since early 1996, Mister Morton's in-town residence has been a rather spacious and spectacular, gated estate in the north-of-Sunset heart of Holmby Hills bought from entertainment industry exec Robert A. Daly for $9,250,000, according to property records. The 1.3+ acre estate has a main house originally erected in the mid-1930s that measures, as per tax records, 13,423 square feet with 8 bedroom, 8 bathrooms, and 5 fireplaces. He scooped up the next door neighboring property (for unknown reasons) in August 2010 for $3,750,000.

More recently, in February 2012, he sold an ocean front house on Malibu's star-lined La Costa Beach for an unknown amount of money to a couple from Phoenix. Lest anyone worry Mister Morton might be without a beach house this coming summer should know that in addition to at least one other ocean front residence in Malibu (near Big Rock), records show he continues to own a downright incredible, very contemporary, custom-built Richard Meier-designed compound situated on a double (or maybe triple-) wide lot on Malibu's billionaire-strewn Carbon Beach.

As it turns out, a 1930s, Paul Williams-esque residence in the quietly swank Little Holmby 'hood (near Westwood) owned by Mister Morton—and long occupied, according to Our Fairy Godmother in the Holmby Hills, by his ex-wife Tarlton—is up for sale with an asking price of $4,495,000, recently lowered from $4,795,000. Property records we perused show Mister Morton bought the property (shown above in listing photos) from Hollywood scion and Vanity Fair contributing editor Wendy Stark Morrissey in January 1998 for an undisclosed amount of dough. The purchase appears to have been part of their (famously acrimonious) divorce.

Much to our surprise Your Mama uncovered and discovered evidence during our rudimentary and unscientific pore though digital property records that in mid-March of this year (2012) Mister Morton shelled out $4,100,000 for a dated but dynamic and potentially spectacular mid-century modern in the trendy Trousdale Estates neighborhood.

Of course we don't know a pin prick from a bullet hole but it seems to Your Mama that Mister Morton thought he saw an opportunity to make some easy money, or maybe he just caught an almost-immediate case of The Real Estate Fickle. Thirteen days after the property transfer documentation and deed was recorded the property (shown above in listing photos) popped back up on the open market with an asking price of $4,395,000. As of yesterday, the property was in escrow.

Current listing information shows the swinging-sixties single story pad has 4,110 square feet with 3 bedrooms, 3.5 bathrooms, vaulted ceilings, vast walls of glass, over-the-rooftops city and sky view, dark bottom free-form swimming pool and really porn-y spa set upset into an raised deck over the hillside to take best advantage of the city views.

Will Mister Morton decide to flip the Bel Air spread he (allegedly) just acquired? Could be. Would anyone be surprised? No. Such are the mysterious and sometimes wacky real estate ways of the rich and/or famous, right?

listing photos (Little Holmby): Westside Estate Agency
listing photos (Trousdale Estates): Coldwell Banker / Beverly Hills North