For the billionaire who has everything, consider an island in San Francisco Bay
The words “private island” conjure up visions of mai tais, palm trees and lonely afternoons on a white-sand beach.
Red Rock Island is not one of those islands.
It is a six-hectare dome-shaped rock that is difficult to reach and even more difficult to explore. The sparse plant life consists of sparse shrubs and pines, along with thickets of poison oak. The beaches are rocky, the cliffs steep.
Forget Mai Tais. This island has no bar, let alone walking paths, drinking water, electricity or any construction whatsoever. You can take a private boat there, but it does not have a dock. You can fly there with a helicopter, but it has no landing platform.
And for $25 million it can all be yours.
“We believe this is like owning a Leonardo da Vinci or a Rothko,” said Chris Lim, a San Francisco real estate agent representing the seller. “This is something that someone would want to have in their portfolio, like art or a sculpture.”
Nearby islands have become famous: Alcatraz, the former federal prison where hardened criminals lived, is known as ‘The Rock’. Others serve recreational purposes, such as Angel Island, a former military outpost and immigration center that is now a state park.
But Red Rock Island, the only private island in San Francisco Bay, is more of an idle curiosity for Northern Californians who wonder about the red dot and occasionally visit by kayak or canoe.
The dream of island ownership has long captured the imagination of the rich and famous; Famous private island owners include Richard Branson, Johnny Depp and George Clooney. Private Islands Inc.a real estate website, lists 607 that are on the market or have recently sold, 116 of which are in the United States.
Chris Krolow, the website’s CEO, said most buyers are American business people who already own numerous homes and want a new, enviable project.
“Americans love their property. They are proud,” said Mr. Krolow, a Canadian who owns 13 islands in Canada, Belize and Fiji. “The idea of having your own island really fits into that American entrepreneurial spirit.”
Mr Lim hopes to find a billionaire who has run out of other distinctive items to buy. And there is only one island for sale in San Francisco Bay, the center of one of the wealthiest regions in the world. (The Altrata Billionaire Census this year, San Francisco counted 84 billionaires, behind only New York City and Hong Kong.)
However, owning an island can come with its own set of frustrations. A New York pathologist, Albert Sutton, once purchased two islands in Long Island Sound, less than an hour north of Manhattan. “I was cocky,” he told The Times in 2019, noting that the $8 million he lost on improvements, including solar panels and a desalination plant, dwarfed the cost of the islands themselves. Mr. Sutton has since died and his family has been unable to sell the islands despite a significant reduction in the asking price, according to Mr. Krolow, who said he has advised them.
Nevertheless, Red Rock has attracted some interest. Two real estate agents recently flew from Miami to look for a billionaire client and reached the island by private boat.
“There’s nothing like it,” said Suzanne Santos, one of the Miami officers. “It’s close to everything, yet separate and secluded. It is rare.”
“This,” she explained, “is a reconnaissance mission.”
Visitors were advised to wear overshoes as the boat had nowhere to dock, and reaching the island may require wading or jumping to the beach, an unpredictable distance depending on the tide.
Once they reached the shore, which was littered with washed-up trash and an errant shoe, they had a view of a Chevron oil refinery on the right, San Quentin Prison on the left and the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge straight ahead.
Around the bend, after tripping over logs and rocks, they could see the cranes at the Port of Oakland, the San Francisco skyline, the sun shining on the bay and the seagulls flying overhead.
The top of the island is more of a mystery. There are no paths to climb the gravel walls and no ropes to hold on to. The slopes are so steep that those who attempt to clamber up tend to slide right back down, with scraped hands covered in crimson dust as their only souvenir.
Those who do reach the top, however, discover stunning panoramic views of the bay, said James Martin, who took photos for the 2006 coffee table book: “The Islands of San Francisco Bay,” and has successfully climbed to the top three times. It’s not hard, he said, to imagine the peaceful seclusion of life up there — if only he had $25 million, plus additional wealth to develop the island.
Decades before the gold rush drew fortune seekers west, Red Rock was settled by Russian fur traders who plundered the sea otter population in the early 1800s. Selim Woodworth, a commander in the U.S. Navy and a senator, later built a cabin there that no longer exists.
At the end of the 19th century, the island was used for mining manganese, the red rock of the same name, for paint pigment. Two more mine tunnels can be seen on the island.
The chain of ownership is complicated and unclear, but a few facts are certain: David Glickman, an attorney, bought the island in 1964 for $49,500. After moving to Thailand to work in the gemstone business, he transferred ownership to his business partner. Mack Durning. When Mr. Durning died in 2012, his son, Brock Durning, who now lives in Alaska, inherited it.
The younger Mr. Durning spent time camping and hiking on the island as a child growing up in the East Bay, but he hasn’t set foot on his own private island in years. Now he wants to sell it to pay for his sick mother’s care, Mr Lim said.
He and previous owners have tried to sell Red Rock before, but to no avail. The best-known potential buyer was Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, the guru whose followers at an Oregon commune deliberately contaminated salad bars with salmonella in hopes of influencing provincial elections there in the 1980s. Mr. Rajneesh left the U.S. in 1985 as part of a plea deal on immigration fraud charges before the purchase of the island went through.
This time, Mr Lim said, three potential buyers have inquired so far: the Miami billionaire and two locals.
And what might the next owner do with Red Rock? Mr Lim provided plans that Brock Durning has kept all these years, showing a boat harbor and helipad, plus botanical gardens, a tea house and a restaurant. All the way at the top? A wedding chapel. Other ideas include a hotel, housing and even a Playboy club.
Mr. Krolow said he has seen Red Rock Island go on and off the market for about two decades, with the price fluctuating between a low of $5 million and the current high of $25 million.
He is not optimistic. He doesn’t think development will be possible, given the staunch opposition Bay Area residents have to virtually any development proposal. Red Rock has the added complication of being located in three different provinces that intersect in the bay.
“We call them our decorative islands,” Mr. Krolow said. “They look very nice and get a lot of attention, but they don’t sell.”
Sejal Choksi-Chugh, executive director of the environmental nonprofit San Francisco Baykeeper, said she hopes none of the development ideas ever come to fruition. She believes that the island should – literally – go to the birds and become a refuge for seagulls, herons and cormorants.
“I’m against a rich billionaire buying it just because they want bragging rights,” she said. “It seems like a pointless exercise.”