An LLC with ties to OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has purchased the street-to-street property next door to his current Russian Hill home in an off-market deal, according to public records and state LLC filings.
Altman is in the midst of a well-publicized “lemon” lawsuit at 950 Lombard, alleging building defects on his new-build 9,500-square-foot home and its infinity pool that led to water damage and mold, causing millions in damages.
The LLC scooped up the new properties — three lots spanning Chestnut and Lombard streets — on Jan. 29 for $14 million, according to the city’s publicly available records. The sale has not been reported until now.
The three properties include a 5,400-square-foot five-bedroom, 5.5-bath home built in 1924 at 855 Chestnut, and adjoining empty lots with about 5,000 square feet at 952 Lombard and 954 Lombard. The property is half a block from the famously “crooked” part of Lombard and is accessed via a steep, tree-covered driveway built into the bedrock on Chestnut.
Meanwhile, San Francisco Association of Realtors MLS records show a purchase price of $12.833 million on each address for a total purchase price of $38.5 million. The San Francisco Assessor Recorder’s office did not know where the MLS got those figures and the SFAR did not immediately reply to a request for comment on the discrepancy.
Altman bought 950 Lombard, which is also a street-to-street property, for $27 million in 2020 and is currently suing its developer and builders, for alleged shoddy workmanship causing over $4 million in damages. The 950 Lombard LLC is managed by Jennifer Serralta, who is also listed as the manager of Amberley Properties LLC, which bought 855 Chestnut and the Lombard lots. Serralta, Altman’s cousin whose LinkedIn lists her as the COO of a family office, has also been on LLCs for other properties that have been connected to Altman in the last few years. She did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The seller is the estate of Thomas and Shelagh Rohlen. Thomas bought the three properties in one deal in 1994 for $4 million, according to public records, shortly before marrying Shelagh. It was a second marriage for both and the estate is split evenly between trusts in each of their names. Thomas, a Stanford University professor who specialized in Japanese studies and established the Stanford Center in Kyoto, Japan, died in 2022 at the age of 81. Shelagh, a philanthropist who supported women’s health and the arts, died at the same age two years later. Her obituary lists four stepchildren from her second marriage, and three daughters from her first marriage. Both of their obituaries make reference to Thomas’ skills as a gardener in their homes in Sonoma and San Francisco.
Sotheby’s agent Deborah Svoboda, who has sold many Russian Hill properties, said the property is nearly half an acre overall and one of the city’s few remaining “garden estates.” She wasn’t involved in the sale and hasn’t seen the property since it last sold in the 1990s, but said it had great views as well as architectural significance. It was built in 1924 by famed architectural firm Bakewell & Brown, which also designed the former SF Art Institute nearby around the same time. It was also architect John Bakewell’s personal residence for many years, Svoboda added.
“It is a beautifully designed house of the perfect proportions typically associated with Arthur Brown’s work,” she said.
While the sale closed on Jan. 29, the deal appears to have begun shortly after Shelagh’s death in August, with Serralta signing the state paperwork to register Amberley Properties on Oct. 31, 2024. A spokesperson for OpenAI and Michael Shetterly, an employment lawyer in the Greenville, South Carolina office of Ogletree Deakins, who is also on the LLC paperwork, did not immediately reply to a request for comment.
Meanwhile, Altman’s suit against 950 Lombard developer Greg Malin and its builders continues to move through the court system. On Jan. 28, general contractors Thompson Suskin LP filed its response to the complaint filed last September, denying liability for any damages and saying that “Plaintiff did not exercise that degree of care and caution which an ordinarily prudent person would exercise in the premises, and that the said Plaintiff is thereby completely or partially barred of recovery in the premises by virtue of their own contributory negligence.” A case management conference set for February has been taken off the calendar and an order for the plaintiffs to show cause has been issued, with a hearing set for March 25.
Read more
Residential
San Francisco
Sam Altman claims developer peddled him $27M “lemon” in San Francisco
Residential
National
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman went on $85M real estate splurge