BY IAN S. PORT
Daily Post Staff Writer
Palo Alto businessman and philanthropist Len Ely exemplified old wealth with the historic $12 million, 4,300-square-foot house he owned on Bryant Street in Old Palo Alto.
But Ely’s lush gardens and circular driveway weren’t enough for new-wealth residents such as Google co-founder Larry Page, who has bought and demolished the Ely house and the house next door.
Now he’s adding those two lots to the compound he has next door for a total of nearly two acres.
Page’s neighbor is doing the same thing. Former Goldman Sachs partner Michael G. Rantz bought two lots next to Page’s to add to the one he already owns.
Now, the two each own three lots on one choice block of Old Palo Alto, just around the corner from PAGE where Steve Jobs lives.
The projects are turning an already-posh part of the city – known for its quiet, tree-lined streets and large, older homes – into a kind of billionaires alley.
Though they front different streets, Page’s and Rantz’s current homes sit on a city block bordered by Bryant Street, Santa Rita Avenue, Waverley Street and North California Avenue.
In 2004, Rantz and his wife Paula bought a 3,000-square-foot home at 2122 Waverley St. that was built in 1938 and is now worth about $3.2 million, records show.
A year later, Page – who at 36 is Forbes’ 14th richest American, with a net worth of $15.8 billion – bought the historic Hacienda de Lemos estate for $7 million. The Hacienda is a six-bedroom 1930s Spanish-style home at 100-110 Waverley Oaks court, a cul-de-sac in the middle of the block.
Buying spree begins Starting last year, both men began buying up lots on the block they share. Neither returned calls seeking to find out why.
The acquisitions began when Page purchased the 1/2-acre property at 330 Santa Rita Ave. that the late Stanford News Service head Robert Beyers owned for many years with his wife Charlotte. A company representing Page also made the winning bid on the Ely house and its large, 247-by 139-foot lot at 2161 Bryant, which Ely originally left to Stanford. Stanford then auctioned the property and now it belongs to Page.
Page demolished the houses at 2131 and 2161 Bryant last year.
A representative of Page has discussed a new two-story house with city officials, but no plans have been submitted yet, according to Palo Alto’s interim planning director, Curtis Williams.
But while Page may be planning another house, it won’t be bigger than his 8,100-square-foot Hacienda de Lemos because city regulations now prohibit homes larger than 6,000 square feet.
Also last year, Rantz purchased the property with house at 2131 Bryant, next door to Ely’s old house. His idea, it appears, was to connect that property to his current home on the other side of the block. Rantz had also purchased a 101-by 139-foot lot, with house and swimming pool, on 111 Waverley Oaks that would bridge Rantz’s old property on Waverley and his new one on Bryant.
Lot swap For reasons unknown, Rantz didn’t go through with that. Instead he swapped the 2131 Bryant property with Page for the house at 330 Santa Rita that Page bought.
With the swap, Page acquired an additional 1.18 acres fronting Bryant Street, which together with the Hacienda de Lemos gives him a nearly two-acre compound that can be accessed both from Bryant Street and the discrete Waverley Oaks court.
Rantz, meanwhile, has large lots on both Santa Rita and Waverley, connected at the back by another property at the end of Waverley Oaks court, just across from Page’s front gate.
With all that new land, Rantz, who became a partner at Goldman Sachs in 1993 but is now self-employed, is planning two new houses.
He’s applied to build a 5, 994-square-foot, two-story home with basement at 330 Santa Rita. That will include a basketball court and a swimming pool, according to plans on fi le with the city.
On the other lot Rantz bought, at 111 Waverley Oaks, he’s planning what appears to be a guest house, with a garage, kitchen, of-fi ce and living room on the ground fl oor and three bedrooms in the basement below.
His plans are moving right along. Rantz got permits to demolish the houses at 330 Santa Rita and 111 Waverley Oaks last summer, and both are now gone.
What all the new construction means for the surrounding neighborhood is unclear. Palo Alto real estate agent Leannah Hunt, who has sold homes on the very block where Page and Rantz live, said upsizing is common in Palo Alto.
“The reality is that all over town you have larger-than-what-was-there houses,” Hunt told the Post. “New construction and upgraded homes improves values on every block.”