Gap Co-Founder sells piece of estate in America’s priciest zip code for $15.5M

The Gap co-founder Doris Fisher has sold a 2-acre Atherton lot with a 1939 three-bedroom, three-bath, more than 4,000-square-foot Tudor-style home for $15.5 million, according to property records.

The property sold after an over-nine-month escrow to high-end home developer Pacific Peninsula Development and demolition permits have already been approved, according to Atherton records.

Located in the Menlo Circus Club neighborhood of Atherton, 178 Atherton Avenue is a two-acre portion of the Fishers’ eight-acre property that was once listed for $100 million.

It was split off from the bulk of the estate last summer with an asking price of $16.5 million and was listed on Redfin as “contingent” on Feb. 10 and “pending” on April 12. The sale closed on Jan. 31.

Brent and Mary Gullixson of Compass represented the sellers and declined to comment on the sale or the status of the rest of the Fisher estate.

Pacific Peninsula did not reply to a request for comment, but it appears from permitting records that the extra-long escrow may have been related to getting a few key approvals from the city for demolition of the existing home and the creation of two newly severed lots.

A tentative map that subdivides the property into two conforming lots was approved in December, indicating that the developer may be planning to build two homes at the site. A final parcel map was filed January 18, but has not yet been approved.

The Fishers added 178 Atherton to their existing estate in 2004 for $8.35 million, property records show. That’s about five years before Don Fisher, who co-founded the clothing company with his wife in San Francisco in 1969, died at the age of 81.

Land sales to developers have been moving forward in Atherton over the past year, and Pacific Peninsula has been an active buyer. The company bought a 2.5-acre Atherton lot for $25 million in January 2023, also after an extensive escrow period. It is also the builder on some of the biggest trades in the last few years, including a $40-million sale last fall that was Atherton’s biggest deal of the year.