Owner Drops Price on San Francisco Bay Island
July 16, 2012
Byline: Associated Press/John S. Marshall
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — An island offering a secluded beach, promises of great fishing and stunning views of the San Francisco skyline is up for sale — and at a discounted price.
Red Rock Island, a 6-acre mass of rock tucked away in a northern part of San Francisco Bay, is now being offered for just under $5 million, real estate agent Steven Higbee said. The property earlier this year was listed for $22 million.
The undeveloped island has been on and off the market for years. Higbee said he advised the owner that the best way to move it was by “whittling away at the price.”
Sitting about 6 miles north of San Francisco, just off the south side of the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge, Red Rock Island is not just off the beaten path, it’s not on any path — and doesn’t even appear on some maps.
Accessible only by boat or helicopter, and with no crowds of tourists swarming about like the better-known Alcatraz Island, the island offers what may be the ultimate in a secluded getaway.
“You could go out there and have wild parties — or retreat away from the wild parties,” Higbee said.
Over the years, ideas have been floated to remove dirt and rock from part of the island and sell it for use in roadway construction, and to build a hotel on the remaining land, though none of those ideas have been implemented. Whatever the next owner does with the island, he or she would enjoy great fishing and a distant view of the America’s Cup races when the event comes to San Francisco in 2013.
Its current owner, retired business owner Mack Durning, took possession of the property from its previous owner, David Glickman, sometime in the 1970s, according to Higbee.
“If somebody came up with some money, I would sell it. Otherwise, I’ll leave it to my sons, to get even with them,” Durning told the San Francisco Chronicle earlier this year.
