Yahoo News Former WeWork CEO Adam Neumann Lists Bay Area Eco-Compound
Adam Neumann, ex-CEO of workspace-sharing behemoth WeWork, is ditching luxury real estate properties almost as fast as tenants are vacating desks at his embattled former company. The latest of his lavish homes to be jettisoned from his and his wife Rebekah Neumann’s flailing financial portfolio is a fantastically secluded and self-contained, nearly 11-acre hilltop estate in the Bay Area. The sprawling mansion is known as “Guitar House” (nicknamed so because a portion of its curvaceous south façade more than just a little resembles — you got it! — a guitar), and Neumann hopes the listing price of $27.5 million will strike a chord with well-heeled potential buyers looking for a self-contained eco-compound.
The sprawling home, sited in the stunning rolling hills of Marin County’s Corte Madera, about 10 miles north of the Golden Gate Bridge, was once owned by influential late rock ’n’ roll promoter Bill Graham. Reimagined by renowned eco-architect Sim Van der Ryn, the almost 14,000-square-foot compound contains a total of seven bedrooms and 5.5 bathrooms between the nearly 10,000-square-foot main house, two-bedroom guest house, yoga studio and indoor racquetball court. Bathed in light and covered with a Zen-like palette of natural woods, creamy polished stone and modern art, the unique spread offers stunning views of the San Francisco skyline and gorgeous gardens that make it ideally suited as an environmentally-friendly, luxury getaway. “In today’s new environment, this is perhaps the most exciting Southern Marin offering to seek the ultimate private luxurious and spacious resort lifestyle,” Compass agent, Joshua Deitch, who holds the listing stated.
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Compared to a more traditional home, the idiosyncratic property is more like a five-star ecological retreat. The property includes a health club, a professional recording studio/screening room and a commercial-grade waterslide that swirls down to a swimming pool and spa. A variety of off-the-grid accouterments include solar panels, a private water well, geothermal heating and cooling systems, an herb garden and greenhouse, a chicken coop and beehives for organic honey harvesting. Who knew living off the grid could be so gosh-darn luxurious?
This Bay Area listing follows in the path of the troubled tech tycoon’s extensive East Coast holdings. Earlier this year, the Neumanns, who have reportedly relocated to Tel Aviv to avoid media scrutiny while WeWork struggles to rebuild in the Covid-19 era, took a half-million-dollar loss on the $1.25 million off-market sale of a charming farmhouse in the ritzy Water Mill area of the Hamptons. Still in their portfolio, however, are four units in a snazzy townhouse complex in the Gramercy Park area of Manhattan that were acquired in a series of 2016 and ’17 transactions that totaled almost $35 million. Three of the units, a 1,250-square foot duplex and a roughly 6,600-square-foot triplex penthouse, which is actually a combination of two units designed by Pietro Cicognani with interiors by Windsor Smith, are currently on the market at a combined price of $37.5 million, while an equally deluxe carriage house is now priced at $5.85 million after it was first put out for sale at $6.35 million.
Neumann was once a poster boy of tech-focussed start-ups, with WeWork’s co-working offices popping up almost overnight in dozens of cities around the world like an invading army. Bank-rolled by the investment firm SoftBank, the Neumanns were once worth as much as $14 billion, according to Bloomberg, with numerous spin off companies (WeLive, WeGrow) under the ‘We’ brand umbrella, even though the company was yet to turn a profit. However, a botched IPO saw SoftBank bail in April and Neumann’s leadership brought into question. He was subsequently ousted and his net worth tumbled to between $450-$750 million, depending on which publication you read.
Launch Gallery: Peek Inside WeWork Co-Founder Adam Neumann's Bay Area Compound
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