Legal eagles selling $12M high-tech home

SAN FRANCISCO (Map, News) - When a high-priced local technology attorney and his wife set out to develop a luxury house in The City, they took a page from local industry and filled the home with gadgetry designed to appeal to tech-loving buyers.

“Everybody whom I represent or with whom I work expects this kind of thing. If we are not successful at selling this at a price that we wish … we’ll just move into it,” said Jerrold Petruzzelli, a partner at Manatt, Phelps & Phillips LLP.

Would it be a pain to run around turning on and off the lights in an 8,000-square-foot house? No problem: 10 Hastings Terrace has a Lutron programmable light-control system that can turn on as many lights as you want, with one switch. The system can interface with the local computer network, the heating and cooling systems, and other systems, according to Sotheby’s International Realtor Betty Brachman.

Too sunny on Russian Hill? The house is wired so you can touch a button and draw all the shades at once. Need music like you need air, constantly? The infrastructure for a whole-house audio system is already there, plus in-wall or ceiling speakers in 14 rooms. Flat-screen television locations, surround-sound speakers and other in-wall systems also come with the house.

There are more systems for phones, and bundled cable from a new data panel to multiport data jacks throughout the house. There are also a few toys, such as the hydraulic lift in the underground garage that allows for extra parking.

“One thing that’s sort of fun … the enormous skylights are motorized and slide over, and you can take a stairway up to the phenomenal roof deck,” Brachman said.

That’s also Petruzzelli’s favorite feature. The skylight is a 12-foot-by-18-foot creation capable of holding 400 pounds to 500 pounds, he said, but it recedes away to allow outdoor access and either way brings light down a lightwell. He also said he likes the kitchen, with its view of the three bridges.

Petruzzelli practices venture capital and technology law. His wife, Dorena Schramm-Petruzzelli, is a stay-at-home mother who uses developing properties as a creative outlet, Petruzzelli said.

“It’s a hobby for my wife. Not a primary thing, but she frankly is just gifted,” he said. She also developed their Telegraph Hill home and two Hyde Street condos.

Where: San Francisco

Asking price: $11.75 million

Property tax: $152,750*

What: 6 bedrooms, 6 baths (plus 2 powder rooms), around 8,000 square feet

Amenities: Lots of technology, views, four-car underground parking with hydraulic lift, five electronically controlled fireplaces, walking distance to North Beach.

Agent: Betty Brachman, The Brachman Group, Sotheby’s International Realty, (415) 296-2215, tenhastings.com

*Estimates based on 1.3% of asking price.

kwilliamson@examiner.com