Community Foundation inherits $33 million Pebble Beach home, the nonprofit’s largest-ever gift.

As he neared the end of his life, Charles de Guigné had a problem, although not one most would relate to. Descended from French nobility and one of California’s wealthiest families, he inherited their “summer home,” a 9,000-square-foot house on almost nine acres of prime oceanfront Pebble Beach property along 17-Mile Drive. The problem: The lifelong bachelor had no heirs. The thought of what would become of the estate he loved – valued at nearly $33 million – made him anxious.

An estate planner provided a solution: leave the Sunset Point property to the Community Foundation for Monterey County, which could in turn sell it to create an endowment. Already a donor to local charities, de Guigné agreed. He passed away on Aug. 9, 2017, at age 78, after a long illness.

More than a year later on a sunny fall day, Community Foundation President and CEO Dan Baldwin is standing on a terrace off one of the bedrooms, facing a spectacular view of Point Lobos. “It’s a bit of a chamber of commerce day,” he says, as a pair of seals swim in the glittering water in the distance.

Baldwin is giving one of many tours he’s already led through the nearly 90-year-old home, which was purchased 50 years ago by de Guigné’s parents, Christian de Guigné III and Eleanor Christenson de Guigné of Hillsborough. Wealthy people from around the world – including one “very famous” person Baldwin won’t name – have taken a tour.

The two-lot property is covered with cypress trees; a main house and a guest house on the larger lot offer seven bedrooms, 11 bathrooms and three half-baths; the smaller lot is undeveloped.

For selling real estate, especially a “complex asset” like the de Guigné home, Baldwin says a committee of real estate experts and attorneys are helping with the task. He estimates the foundation has spent approximately $150,000 on surveys and reports covering every aspect from the environment to historic preservation.

The sprawling main house has some quirks. Designed for 1930s sensibilities, it is not the open concept preferred by today’s buyers. The kitchen is dated and small. It has an elevator and a secret staircase, hidden by shelving, down to what could be a separate unit with its own kitchen and a large, tiled, grotto-style bathroom.

The downstairs also has a walk-in cedar closet and a dressing area with lots of drawers and cabinets, possibly used by de Guigné’s mother, Eleanor – considered one of the world’s best-dressed women of the mid-20th century – who owned a huge collection of furs, Tiffany jewelry and haute couture. She gifted most of it to the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco.

Quirks aside, the star of the show is the view, which is especially breathtaking from the upstairs master bedroom that sits atop a cliff overlooking the ocean.

“At the end of the day this is all going to get channeled into a charitable fund,” Baldwin says. It will be divided between health care and animal welfare groups. In life, de Guigné was a donor to Community Hospital of the Monterey Peninsula, SPCA for Monterey County and Monterey Bay Aquarium, among others.