A sprawling waterfront property in Tiburon is likely the largest remaining undeveloped stretch of shoreline in Marin County. The lot features 2,000 feet of San Francisco Bay shoreline, offering amazing views. Plus, it’s just a short drive to the rich enclave’s charming downtown.
These are the features real estate brokers dream of selling. But a buyer for 2800 Paradise Drive remains elusive, despite a series of dramatic price cuts.
Anders Swahn and his ex-wife Terri Salvatore Swahn, who own this prime property, listed it for an audacious $47 million in 2017, as reported in SFGate. It’s now on the market for $8.75 million, 82% less.
Swahn is a Swedish engineering entrepreneur and semiconductor pioneer who most recently worked as COO of Turbonext.ai, according to the company’s website. Both Swahns declined to be interviewed.
“You cannot find this acreage on the waterfront … in all the north coast of California. I mean, it’s so unique,” said Lydia Sarkissian, one of the brokers handling the listing for Sotheby’s International Realty.
The reason it has been on and off the market is a tug-of-war between local officials, conservation-minded neighbors, and ambitious owners, according to press accounts and interviews with real estate agents.
Marin-based Realtor and investor Olivia Hsu Decker said the original owners were the Reed family, whose ancestor was granted the land by a Mexican governor in the 1830s, historical records show.
Decker said she sold the Swahns a Gilmartin Drive property about four miles away in 1999. Soon after, she sold them Mark Reed’s waterfront property for $8.75 million.
The Swahns embarked on an ambitious nine-year effort to develop the site, spending more than $1 million on consultants and $1.3 million in property taxes while navigating Marin County’s complex permitting process, according to the Marin Independent Journal.
Despite initial resistance from county officials and locals who worried about the lot’s size and visibility from the bay, the Swahns got the green light for a residence, guest quarters, and cottage after making concessions to protect trees and address neighbors’ concerns about environmental sustainability.
However, the development plans never materialized. The couple attempted to auction the property without a minimum bid in May 2021 but rejected an offer, the San Francisco Business Times said.
“They’re not making money at this time,” Sarkissian said.
Even if the land sells and the buyers wish to build their dream home — there are approved plans for one up to 15,000 square feet — they would need deep pockets and face a years-long review process, with potentially lengthy legal challenges, according to Jeff Marples, a Tiburon resident who sells homes in San Francisco and Marin counties.
“It’s going to be amazing, but you have to have that very specific buyer who wants to take something on,” Marples said, estimating that permit approval alone could take up to three years, with construction costing between $15 million and $17 million. “Tiburon’s building department is pretty challenging to begin with.”
Marin-based real estate agent Ann Laury says infrastructure is potentially the most significant obstacle.
“It’s not connected, that’s not the biggest problem. It’s hard to connect because they didn’t plan enough sewage capacity for all the houses,” Laury said. “I think it’s possible that you have to have a well or something.”
Despite these challenges, Marples believes the right buyer exists: someone with exceptional wealth looking to create “a compound like nobody’s ever seen” and willing to navigate the obstacles.
“For the right person, absolutely — the Jeff Bezoses of the world,” Marples said.