On a Bay Area ‘island’ compared to Portofino, home with impressive views seeks $4.8M

An estate with views of San Francisco, the bay and Mount Tamalpais is on the market for a price of $4.777 million—one of only 58 luxury homes on a steep 15-acre hillside in Marin County known as Corinthian Island.

“Many compare this small island of single-family view homes to Portofino (Italy),” listing agent Shana Rohde-Lynch of Compass said in an email to the Sacramento Bee. “Views from this shingled residence are tremendous of San Francisco, the bay and beyond, including mesmerizing sunsets over Mount Tamalpais.”

The five-bedroom, five-bathroom home, which spans 3,971 square feet, also takes in views of San Francisco Yacht Club, Belvedere Island and Belvedere Lagoon, Tiburon harbor and the Bay Bridge.

Located at 37 Alcatraz Ave., the estate is part of Corinthian Island, which has only three streets on it. The community sits between Tiburon and Belevdere Island. It encompasses two municipalities—Tiburon and Belvedere. It’s actually a former island that has been connected to the mainland.

This Alcatraz Avenue home was built in 1910 and has been updated. A foyer leads to an open great room containing the kitchen, living room and dining room. Hardwood flooring extends throughout the main and lower levels.

The open and airy living room and dining room feature floor-to-ceiling windows framed to emphasize the San Francisco Bay and Belvedere Cove vistas.

There’s a large chef’s kitchen and guest suite on the main level, while the upper level features a large primary suite and an additional en-suite bedroom with separate entrance. The primary suite, with a sitting area, takes in panoramic bay views. An elegant primary bathroom offers marble flooring and countertops, a jetted bathtub, stall shower and dual sinks.

A media/recreation room on the lower level shows of the scenery from Mount Tamalpais to the city. Also on the lower levels is an en-suite bedroom.

The home’s fifth bedroom suite also boasts views of the bay and San Francisco Yacht club.

From the home’s expansive terrace, San Francisco Yacht Club, Belvedere Island and the bay can be seen.

The home last sold in February 2016 for $4.25 million, according to public record. There is one other home for sale on the island, a nearly $20 million offering at 27 Bellevue Ave.

Corinthian Island — once little more than a hill surrounded by water at high tide with low scrub brush on its slopes — was part of John Thomas Reed’s Mexican land grant, according to the Belvedere-Tiburon Landmarks Society. Developer Thomas B. Valentine acquired the property in 1891. Five years later, the community’s boundary was drawn along the island’s crest so two-thirds of the island sits in Belvedere and one-third in Tiburon.

The island’s first building was the Corinthian Yacht Club. In 1907, Valentine’s widow sold the 15-acre property to partners James and Fred Kelley, Sidney Plant and William Corran who created the Corinthian Island Co. In 1908, three of the company owners built homes on the island, vertical residences by necessity of the property’s steepness.