Billionaire’s Row, the three blocks of Broadway between Lyon and Divisadero streets, might be the world’s most elegant construction site.

The San Francisco Bay can be seen sparkling through floor-to-ceiling windows as plainclothes security guards wander and construction workers lounge on the sidewalk, nursing sandwiches and cigarettes.

This strip of mansions is owned by the city’s elite, including Oracle founder Larry Ellison, Mimi Haas (the mayor’s mom), and Steve Jobs’ widow, Laurene Powell Jobs. But as of late it has been overrun with whirring trucks and thudding hammers — Monday through Friday during the day, of course — that have no sign of slowing down.

So what are the rich doing to their already magnificent cribs? The Standard dove through building permit records to find out.

None of the property owners responded to requests for comment by publication time.

Laurene Powell Jobs smashed the record for San Francisco’s most expensive home sale with her $71 million purchase on the Row in July. Now she’s making adjustments to the seven-bedroom mansion’s eating and washing spaces (kitchen and bathroom to you and me).

A permit for the remodel, which is estimated to cost $100,000, was issued Feb. 19. Jobs is known for her philanthropic investment firm, Emerson Collective, and contributions to the Democratic Party, including a $1.5 million donation to the Senate Majority PAC ahead of the 2016 election. Now, she is also the owner of what Architectural Digest described as “the most beautiful house in America.”

The previous owners, the Barnett family, hired Peter Marino, an architect known for modern buildings in New York and Tokyo. The result is a mix of contemporary and classic elements that doubled the property’s value. Apparently that wasn’t enough.

After shirking their responsibilities as the majority owners of Manchester United by offloading control to an English billionaire for 1.5 billion euros, the Glazer family has found the perfect place to hide from the soccer franchise’s dire performance in the English Premier League — in the form of a first-floor crawl space.

The hidey-hole renovations are part of a $4.33 million remodel that also includes replacing elevators and staircases, new skylights and entryways, and new doors and windows, according to building permits, the most recent of which was filed March 11. 

The Glazer clan, who also own two-time Super Bowl champions the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, purchased the $34.5 million home in July 2022. Reporting from The Real Deal tracked the deed for the property to Glazer Properties, a developer of shopping centers founded by Kevin Glazer, son of Malcolm Glazer, patriarch of the clan. The Standard was unable to verify which family member lives in the home — when it’s not a construction site, that is — but assessor records show it remains owned by the Glazer entity.

The 1927 Beaux Arts beauty at 2790 Broadway was designed by Arthur Brown Jr., a San Francisco architect who is also responsible for Coit Tower, Temple Emanu-El, City Hall, and the San Francisco Opera House.

Next door to the Glazer residence, at 2780 Broadway, is a white brick home that has switched hands seven times over three decades; owners have included philanthropist Richard Dinner, Israeli businessman Efraim Arazi, former U.S. Ambassador to Austria Trevor Traina, and Farallon Capital Management managing partner Andrew Spokes.

Now, the property is owned by Sneakers LLC, a new company out of Delaware. The Standard was unable to connect it to an individual, only to the San Francisco offices of the wealth management firm Jordan Park. The four-bedroom, $17 million home is undergoing an interior remodel and had permits issued as recently as December to install a new fire sprinkler system — all for an estimated cost of just over $2 million.

Previously owned by the family that founded Hills Bros. Coffee in San Francisco, the brick home at 2920 Broadway was purchased in April 2021 for $43.5 million. You may recall that family for ambitious descendant Austin Hills, who in 2022 attempted a run for district attorney but was disqualified because he wasn’t registered as an attorney.

The new owner is NARF NAS LLC. There’s little information about the company aside from a listing with an office on Fillmore Street and the name of a partner at the wealth management firm Andersen, Mamie Chew Gupta, who did not respond to a request for comment.

The property, with 11,455 square feet of living space and a 5,000-bottle wine cellar, is getting an intensive interior remodel — the initial permit for which was issued in April 2021 — for $3.25 million.

One of the newer homes on the hill, 2900 Broadway, was completed in 2004. The mansion was previously owned by tech moguls Michael and Xochi Birch, who founded the former British social networking site Bebo and the exclusive social club The Battery SF. 

The property is a baby among the neighborhood’s giant manors, most of which broke ground at the turn of the 20th century, when the city’s wealthiest moved west from Nob Hill after it was decimated by the 1906 earthquake.

San Francisco design stalwart Ken Fulk worked on the four-story, 11,690-square-foot home that was sold for the first time in August to Stone Real Estate Holdings LLC for $29.1 million, $10 million less than the asking price. A building permit was issued in May 2023. The interior is being remodeled, along with an extension to the property and new landscaping and stairs, for an estimated $2.6 million. 

The Standard was unable to track down an individual associated with the property, only the Redwood City address of the financial advisory firm Baker Tilly.

A couple of other abodes on the block are undergoing renovations.

The five-bathroom, 8,000-square-foot home at 2799 Broadway sold for $32 million in October 2018 to ALLMEI 2900 LLC, with addresses in Delaware and Switzerland. The Standard was unable to track the company to any individual. A renovation, estimated to cost $741,000, includes new finishes, plumbing, electrical, walls, bathrooms, and cabinets.

Michael Taylor, a San Francisco-based designer who created the vision for 2799 Broadway, is known for pioneering the “California look,” with all white rooms and plants.

A relatively unassuming $9.3 million home that last sold in January 2024, 2776 Broadway is also undergoing an interior remodel, with the most recent approved permit issued last month. Fixes include changes to the three bathrooms and kitchen, along with upgrades to fixtures and finishes, for an estimated cost of $400,000.

According to property records, the three-bedroom, 3,579-square-foot house belongs to a trust associated with the Arsenault family, which includes Luc Arsenaut, a partner at the private equity firm Moss Adams.

And if you happen to be looking for a contractor fit for a billionaire, permit records show that MatPel Builders or Jim Dow are the ones to call.

It seems they know what they’re doing.