SARATOGA — A land bank subsidiary of a private equity firm bought a century-old vineyard in Saratoga in a $100 million-plus deal that leaves Lennar Homes poised to develop housing on the site.
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Essential Housing Asset Management, a unit of investment firm TPG Angelo Gordon, acted through an affiliate to pay $109.7 million for the 12.1-acre property at 14001 Chester Ave., documents filed on July 1 with the Santa Clara County Recorder’s Office show.
Residential builder Lennar Homes is listed in the grant deed as working with Essential Housing on the site.
The seller was an entity controlled by business executives Thomas J. Wilson, Dustin T. Mannina, Sachneel Patel, and Jeffrey Bader, county documents show.
The group bought the land in June 2025 for $30.6 million and embarked on a process to secure approval for a residential project on the property, which began operating as a vineyard around 1920.
Initially, the Wilson-led group proposed a 231-unit project known as Vineyard One at the corner of Chester Avenue and Allendale Avenue.
A series of negotiations with Saratoga planners and leaders eventually downsized the project to the current proposal that envisions a 64-unit housing development.
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Of the 64 homes, 52 will be single-family residences for sale and 12 will be accessory dwelling units. Six of the ADUs will be rented to very low-income households, and six will be rented to moderate-income households, planning files show.
On May 6, the project cleared what appeared to be a crucial late-stage hurdle when the Saratoga City Council approved a final map for the development.
The Essential Housing firm’s role as a land bank, based on how the company operates regarding other subdivisions in the United States, would be to gradually sell units to Lennar after the homebuilder secures sales of the 52 single-family homes.
Ahead of final completion of the homes, Lennar is expected to install utilities, paving, streets, fencing and landscaping, along with construction of residences, planning files show. The timing for the affordable rental units wasn’t immediately known.
The purchase and development plans have materialized at a time when the median price of a home in Saratoga is around $3.9 million, far higher than the California median price of $930,260 and the Santa Clara County median home price of $1.6 million, according to Redfin.
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