Biotech Co-Founder Behind $30M Purchase of Atherton Pad

Helmy Eltoukhy, co-founder of $4 billion cancer test maker Guardant Health, is involved in a recent $30 million acquisition of an Atherton estate, a single-family sale that ranks among this year’s priciest in the Bay Area’s most expensive zip code.

The buyer of the 11,500-square-foot pad at 72 Barry Lane is a limited liability company that names Eltoukhy as a manager/member, according to California business filings. The company acquired the 1.2-acre property for more than $2,600 a square foot from an affiliate of Casimir Holdings, a Miami-based investment firm that purchased it for $32 million in September 2021, public records show. Casimir listed the pad for sale a year after acquiring it for just under that amount, according to MLSListings data. Eltoukhy’s LLC closed on it on Nov. 4, according to public records.

Eltoukhy didn’t respond to requests for comment. Coldwell Banker Realty’s Joe Piazza was 72 Barry’s listing broker.

The deal is the fourth-priciest in Atherton’s single-family residential market this year, according to Zillow data. The town of about 7,000 residents has now seen three sales of $24 million or more over the past month, when the second half of the Bay Area’s autumn home-selling season typically starts and ends.

About half of San Mateo County’s 27 submarkets, including Atherton, saw single-family sales volume drop from September to October, according to MLSListings data. Yet the 10 percent decline in Atherton wasn’t as severe as in Woodside and Hillsborough, two other affluent enclaves in the county where sales volume plummeted by more than half during that time, the data show.

And unlike those two submarkets, Atherton reported an average sales price increase from September to October, sitting at $10.6 million at the end of last month, MLSListings data show.

The six-bed, seven-bath estate at 72 Barry Lane was completed in 2015 by homebuilder Pacific Peninsula Group, which sold one of its other Atherton projects last month for $24 million. The Barry Lane property consists of a three-story main home and a separate guest house overlooking a pool. Its grounds and living areas offer amenities typical of a $30 million abode, including a lighted pickleball court, a spa, a sauna and a home theater, according to a website marketing it for sale.