A house that notably sold well below a sky-high asking price in 2020, designed by a renowned SF architect but heavily renovated to the point that the developer was fined by preservationists, is now the subject of a new lawsuit because of its many reported defects. And it belongs to OpenAI CEO Sam Altman.

SFist wrote about the sale of the Russian Hill home at 950 Lombard Street in December 2020, which was notable because of the huge drop in asking price — from $45 million when it hit the market in 2018 down to $27 million. The previously historic home facing Chestnut Street on the other side of the block had been thoroughly renovated into a modern compound, with a foreboding tunnel entrance on Lombard described in a listing as "Batcave"-like, a guest house, outdoor kitchen and entertaining area, and a six-bedroom, eight-bathroom main house.

It's one of multiple homes owned by Sam Altman and his husband, Oliver Mulherin, and it made news this past December because of an apparent coyote problem on the property. (Mulherin had snapped a photo of a coyote lounging on the home's outdoor furniture, which ended up in Time magazine.)

In his CEO of the Year interview with Time, Altman mentioned the coyote, saying, "This coyote moved into my house and scratches on the door outside. It’s very cute, but it’s very annoying at night."

Then, in May of this year, the SF Business Times first reported on the legal filings surrounding the home, and a $50 million arbitration judgment that had been awarded to a group of investors who had backed this and several other luxury home flips by Troon Pacific, and its main developer Greg Malin. The investors claimed, and an arbitrator agreed, that Troon Pacific had been engaged in fraudulent self-dealing, overcharging fees that kept profits from the homes out of investors' hands.

The Chronicle now reports, without mentioning Altman, on a separate lawsuit filed by the LLC that owns 950 Lombard. That suit claims that the buyer "was misled into buying a $27 million lemon," and that the home has proven to have problems with "the interior walls, ceilings, floors, roof(s), foundation, and plumbing/sewer/septic systems, or any other structural components of the building."

The suit claims that fixing the troubled house's problems is costing the owner $4 million, and it further alleges that Malin was "aware of pervasive and significant defects in connection with poor or unfinished installation of irrigation and drainage systems, plumbing and sewer systems, waterproofing, and other mechanical issues, as well as the defective design and installation of the cantilevered pool system."

That cantilevered pool can be seen in the photo below, along with an overhead view of the block-wide property.

The house, designed by Willis K. Polk — an early 20th Century architect known for SF's Hobart Building and the pioneering glass-fronted Hallidie Building on Sutter Street — was built in 1907, and its front was originally facing Chestnut Street. The considerabe gutting and some window changes made by Troon Pacific during a six-year redevelopment incurred a $400,000 fine from the city for the desicrating of a historic resource.

The Chronicle also reports that Troon Pacific had been seeking get the $50 million arbitration award vacated — it include $48 million in damages and $2 million in attorneys' and other fees — but a court upheld the award on July 5.

And the paper notes that Malin has been an SF society figure for some time, becoming a major donor to the SF Symphony and other arts organizations. It does not note that Malin's wife and design partner in his firm, Charlot Malin, who was also Troon Pacific's chief operatin officer, passed away suddenly in 2017.

Malin and the fund that bankrolled the renovations of four properties —  2646 Union Street, 2582 Filbert Street, 2950 Pacific Street, and 63 Carmel Street — filed for bankruptcy in July 2023. Like 950 Lombard Street, at least two of those homes sold for considerbly lower amounts than their asking prices.

Previously: Huge Russian Hill Spec House Sells for $27M — 40% Below Original Asking Price of $45M