When oral surgeon Dr. Alex Kashef bought a vacant waterfront restaurant in Sausalito, Calif., in 2012, he didn’t know the purchase would lead him to his future wife.

Planning to turn the circa-1893 structure into a hotel, Alex hosted a birthday party for his mother in the vacant space—and his future wife, Hani Kashef, was among the guests. After meeting for the first time that night, the two nestled into one of the old restaurant booths to chat the night away, and soon they were dating. They moved in together on the upper floors of the former tavern, and were married in 2013, said Alex.

Two years later, faced with neighborhood resistance to a hotel, the Kashefs decided to turn the Victorian-style building into a residence and make it their primary home. The roughly $20 million renovation was completed in 2022, and the dining room table sits in the exact spot where they sat the night they met, Alex said.

The open-plan kitchen and great room has a two-sided marble fireplace.

By the time the project was nearing completion, however, the family’s needs had changed. The Kashefs listed the estate for $11.8 million while it was under construction in 2020, and are now putting the completed estate on the market for $28 million.

“I never imagined selling it, but life changes,” Alex said.

The roughly 10,000-square-foot, eight-bedroom estate is located on the boardwalk in Sausalito’s historic Old Town neighborhood, said listing agent Lydia Sarkissian of Golden Gate Sotheby’s International Realty. In addition to the main house, the half-acre estate has a four-car garage and a two-bedroom guesthouse, said Sarkissian.

The estate is about 10,000 square feet.

The property has about 90 feet of waterfront on San Francisco Bay.

The two-bedroom guesthouse has a waterfront veranda and a live-work loft.

The property was originally a tavern called Valhalla and later, during Prohibition, a “soft drink parlor” that was raided in 1921 for serving alcoholic drinks, according to the Sausalito Historical Society. The building was a restaurant from the 1950s until the 2000s, Alex said. In 2012, he paid $3.45 million for the estate and another house in the city, which they use as a guesthouse.

Today, the open-plan kitchen and great room contains Valhalla’s original 1893 bar with a built-in humidor. In the 1930s, that same bar was tended by the gangster Lester Joseph Gillis, known as Baby Face Nelson, according to the historical society. The couple worked hard to “keep the history of this place,” Hani said.

There is a veranda off the great room, which has a Murano glass chandelier and Valhalla’s original bar.

The entry courtyard has the original “Valhalla” sign and planters repurposed from the wood ceiling of the original restaurant, said Sarkissian. The Kashefs liked throwing parties on the rooftop terrace, which has a marble-topped bar, they said.

When he felt overwhelmed during the renovation, Alex said, the couple’s history with the spot “definitely kept me going.”

The 3,500-square-foot rooftop terrace has a marble-topped bar with antique brass taps.

The family moved into the home once it was completed in 2022, but ended up moving out after only two years, wanting to be closer to their daughters’ school.

“We built it as a family home, but the problem was that it took so long to build that unfortunately, time goes on,” said Alex.

The most expensive home sold in Marin County was a $47.5 million sale in 2015 across the bay, according to Sarkissian. About one property in the $20 million to $30 million range trades in the area each year, attracting buyers in finance and technology, said Sarkissian.