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Meet John Sobrato, Sobrato Organization

San Jose Legends: John Sobrato’s generosity is everywhere

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Editor’s Note: San Jose Legends is a new series that tells remarkable stories of the historic and legendary people who helped shape and transform our city.

Silicon Valley philanthropist John Sobrato is aware that wealth has the ability to change people.

For Sobrato, 82, the son of Italian immigrants who first settled in San Francisco, it’s changed him for the better. In fact, he said, it’s part of his family business just as much as real estate is.

His parents began their foray into real estate when they sold an Atherton property purchased during World War ll to raise chickens and grow vegetables that were rationed for their San Francisco restaurant known as John’s Rendezvous. The sale made them more money than they earned when his father worked 18 hour days at the restaurant.

“That’s why I’m in real estate, and not the restaurant business,” Sobrato joked.

Sobrato began his career in real estate in 1957 in Palo Alto while a sophomore in college at Santa Clara University, following in his mother’s footsteps. Just three years later and fresh out of college, the mother-son duo landed their first big investment: a 14,000 square foot building for aerospace company Lockheed.

His real estate empire soon expanded when he partnered with longtime friend Carl Berg, 83, himself a Silicon Valley powerhouse real estate investor. They worked together in a Palo Alto firm called Midtown Realty that John founded in 1960 the same year he graduated from Santa Clara University. Berg has since moved on to venture capital while Sobrato has stayed in real estate development, an area he considers his career passion.

Sobrato’s firm has built or developed dozens of now well-known Silicon Valley buildings, such as Apple’s former Cupertino campus, the 500,000-square-foot Nvidia campus and the 18-story, 388,000-square foot Sobrato Office Tower, and offices for Netflix, EMC, VeriSign, Yahoo! and the Palo Alto Medical Foundation.

Sobrato is the 297th richest person in the world in 2021 according to Bloomberg and the 14th richest person in Silicon Valley in 2019 according to numbers from Forbes. His family’s net worth is an estimated $8.8 billion.

“We were in the right place at the right time,” he said.

Giving back

Sobrato has used his massive wealth to do a world of good in Silicon Valley. He founded the Sobrato Organization , a real estate and philanthropic firm, in 1979.

Sobrato’s daughter, Lisa Sobrato Sonsini, spun off a charity, Sobrato Philanthropies , from the original organization with her father’s blessing in 1996. According to its website, Sobrato Philanthropies has given away more than $644 million. It leases office space in San Jose, Milpitas and Redwood City to other Bay Area nonprofits.

“The design of the organization from the beginning has always been a way to bring our family together,” Sobrato Sonsini said.

He has also sponsored different hospitals, including a pavilion at the Santa Clara Valley Medical Center in San Jose which opened in 2017 and a prominent Sobrato Pavilion at the Lucille Packard Childrens’ Hospital , which opened in 2018.

Sobrato’s organization dabbles in many different causes, from homelessness to education.

One of the Sobrato Organization’s signature programs, the Sobrato Early Academic Language model, or SEAL, teaches English to Spanish-speaking elementary school kids to ensure they’re academically literate by third grade.

SEAL started in 2012 in five schools and has now expanded to more than 50,000 students in 100 schools across the state. Schools foot two-thirds of the bill—$3,000 per student—while the Sobrato Organization pays the rest.

“It’s a very lively, active classroom,” Sobrato said.

The surest way out of poverty

Sobrato has increased his education advocacy over the years, including an investment in Cristo Rey San Jose Jesuit High School , a private Catholic high school in San Jose’s east side.

There, students not only get a classroom education but are also given internship and trade opportunities with some of Silicon Valley’s biggest tech names like HP and Cisco.

“I really think education is the surest way out of poverty,” Sobrato said. “We’ve been very involved in charter schools. It’s something that I enjoy doing and it’s great to see these kids advance.”

Much of the proceeds from selling real estate has gone into the business’s charity work, which in turn gives the organization more money to give out as grants and donations.

“Now that we’re comfortable, the entire family believes that it’s our obligation to give back to our communities any way we can to make it a place of opportunity for everybody,” Sobrato said.

Helping the less fortunate

Sobrato said his other big philanthropic passion is helping people get housing.

He currently sits on the board of Destination: Home, a San Jose-based nonprofit committed to ending homelessness. While the homelessness crisis in the region can’t be solved in his lifetime, he said, it’s up to him and other philanthropists to ensure every homeless person is eventually housed so the region doesn’t remain “an area of haves and have-nots.”

“I don’t think we can only build our way out of the problem,” Sobrato said. “Philanthropy has to step up and help these people. We also need to move those with substance abuse and mental issues off our downtown streets because they are driving away customers. Our elected officials need to utilize Laura’s Law and obtain conservatorships to force these folks into treatment facilities where they can receive the care they need.”

Sobrato serves on a variety of boards, including Joint Venture Silicon Valley , a policy and economic think tank.

Russell Hancock, Joint Venture’s president and CEO, has known Sobrato for decades. Hancock said Sobrato is a “fixer,” and his passion to solve problems is what drives him.

“He’s moved by compassion,” Hancock said. “His Catholic faith means a great deal to him, and he understands his discipleship as a call to give, as a call to relieve the plight of the suffering and the poor.”

Sobrato lives with his wife Susan. They have three children: John Michael, Sheri Sobrato Brisson and Lisa Sobrato Sonsini, who are all active philanthropists and seven grandchildren.

“A lot of what my grandmother brought up my father with—displaying a strong work ethic, being responsive to the needs of those around you, volunteering in soup kitchens — it was always made very clear that having both resource and opportunity, it’s our responsibility to give back,” Sobrato Sonsini said.

Sobrato has one more act of philanthropy in him.

The Sobrato family, along with over 200 other individuals, have signed The Giving Pledge , a promise among extremely wealthy individuals to donate most or all of their wealth to charitable causes once they die. Fellow billionaires Bill and Melinda Gates and Warren Buffett started the campaign in 2011 in hopes of encouraging more wealthy people to donate to charity.

Sobrato said he’s happy to do so, just like his parents and grandparents taught him.

“You get to a point where you go, ‘What are you going to do with all your money?,” he said. “Do something for mankind and reduce human suffering.”

Contact Lloyd Alaban at [email protected] or follow @lloydalaban on Twitter.

Read about other San Jose Legends:

Rod Diridon
Blanca Alvarado
Norm Mineta

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Interview with John Sobrato

Silicon valley's loyal local donor explains why he keeps things close to home..

John Sobrato is a family man running a family business, plus a family philanthropy.

The only child of two hardworking Italian immigrants, during his sophomore year of college Sobrato started helping his mom with her real-estate investments, and selling homes in Silicon Valley for $20,000. A year after his graduation in 1960, the mother-son duo organized their first industrial project for a major company—a 14,000-square-foot building for Lockheed. The Sobratos were now developers, and Silicon Valley would never be the same. Forbes currently estimates the net worth of the Sobrato family to be $6.9 billion.

The Sobrato Organization still has no outside shareholders, but it has grown to manage more than 75 commercial properties in the Valley, with a particular niche in high-tech headquarters like the custom buildings created for Netflix, Apple, and other premier tenants. While expanding this business, the Sobrato family has given over $379 million to nonprofits in the region through their family foundation , in addition to personal gifts distributed across the country and world. In 2012 John and Susan Sobrato and their son John Michael became the first two-generation family to sign the Giving Pledge , agreeing to leave their estates to philanthropy.

Philanthropy: The first real-estate investor in your family was your mother. How did she get into the profession?

Sobrato: My parents immigrated from Italy almost a hundred years ago. My father had a very successful restaurant in San Francisco called “John’s Rendezvous.” His busiest time was during the war years, when everything was rationed. You couldn’t get vegetables, you couldn’t get chicken. So my mother had the idea to buy a ranch. They bought a couple of acres in Atherton, tore out the lawns, and raised produce and poultry for the restaurant. My dad worked hard. In the restaurant business, you have to be there on a daily basis. He never got home before one or two in the morning. Then he’d leave the next morning around ten.

After the war, my parents didn’t need this two-acre estate in Atherton anymore, so they sold it. They made more money on that property than they did all the years of working 18 hours a day during the war. That’s why I’m in real estate, and not the restaurant business.

Philanthropy: Can you tell me about your parents’ philanthropic priorities?

Sobrato: When I was about ten years old, my mom used to take me on her volunteer trips to St. Anthony’s soup kitchen. She would cook and serve meals one or two days a week, my first introduction to charity. And my father always had a wad of bills in his pocket, being in the restaurant business. I can remember waiters and bartenders coming up and saying, “Hey John, I have this problem. Can you lend me some money?” He’d whip out his wad of cash and hand bills over to his workers.

Philanthropy: Tell me about your family foundation.

Sobrato: The foundation focuses on Silicon Valley grants. Of course, there’s also a lot of need outside of Silicon Valley. So less than half of my giving is through the foundation. My wife Susan and I have three children and seven grandchildren, and the Sobrato Family Foundation has voting members from all three generations. Our grandchildren are allowed to attend foundation board meetings, and they can vote on grants after their twenty-first birthday.

When we donate appreciated real estate to the foundation, half the amount is deposited in each child or grandchild’s donor-advised fund , and they can make grants out of that fund however they wish without having to come to the board for a vote. We hope that by doing this we encourage the family to continue giving together rather than drifting apart. When we set up trusts for our grandchildren we stipulated that they start receiving distributions at age 25, and those payments increase at age 30, 35, and 50. But in order to receive those funds, we require that they grant a similar amount to charities of their choice. To get $100, they have to give away $100.

For example, my grandson John Mathew is 31, and he has a passion for teaching high school to low-income students. He is now vice principal at Latino College Preparatory Academy in East San Jose. When he turned 25, he gave some of his trust distribution to deserving students for scholarships so they could attend college. Now he is paying for half the cost of a new academic building, and I am paying for the other half. It’s an $11 million project.

We thought it was important to encourage our grandchildren and children to do as we do. There’s enough wealth that they’re comfortable, but not to an excess. And our kids aren’t selfish, so they’re okay with this. They don’t have to have three airplanes and five houses.

Our giving also keeps us close. Making decisions on our shared priorities creates a natural process for learning each other’s passions and opinions.

Philanthropy: Tell me about the foundation’s focus on office space for nonprofits.

Sobrato: Like the cost of housing, the cost of office space in Silicon Valley strains the budgets of our local nonprofits.

When my mother died about 15 years ago, we decided to convert a multi-tenant business park in Milpitas that she bequeathed to the family into a center for free office space for nonprofits. It proved so popular that we converted another building in San Jose, and then another campus in Redwood Shores. We now have about 350,000 square feet of office space housing 75 nonprofits free of charge. We also have free meeting rooms and conference facilities for up to 150 people at each center that any nonprofit can reserve, which saves the cost of renting hotel conference facilities. Last year alone we hosted 8,400 meetings for 176 nonprofits in our region.

In order to set up an office in our space the nonprofit has to have a budget of at least $300,000, and it has to have been in business for a number of years and have good leadership. The executive director of a charity makes a big difference.

Philanthropy: Your foundation is known for giving general-operating support.

Sobrato: Our general-operating grants can be used however the group wishes. We see it as a sign of our trust. Our only stipulation is that the second-year payment is conditioned upon the organization providing proof that it was able to match our grant with pledges from new donors or increased giving from existing donors. Nearly 100 percent of our grantees over the years have succeeded at matching our dollars, and a large portion raise more than is required. The nonprofits tell us that a Sobrato gift is an imprimatur that helps them with other funders.

Philanthropy: How has Silicon Valley changed in your lifetime?

Sobrato: When I was selling houses in the 1960s, you could buy a nice home for $20,000. The population really started to boom around the early ’70s. Now we have a lot more people, and very little developable land anymore. Supply and demand are out of whack.

Realistically the only solution is to build more housing. I believe we will eventually see neighborhoods accept taller buildings, more density. We can’t fill the bay, we are surrounded by mountains and open space that we cherish, so the only solution is to build up. The typical complaint is that more density will bring more traffic, but I think autonomous vehicles and ride-sharing will become the norm and our existing roads will be able to handle more people without more cars.

Philanthropy: Do you think that Silicon Valley is a generous place?

Sobrato: Much of the wealth in Silicon Valley has been created by entrepreneurs who came here from other regions of the U.S. and from all over the globe. Astoundingly, over 60 percent of the high-tech workers here are foreign-born. So it only stands to reason that many want to give back to the countries they came from. But for my family, when we founded the foundation 21 years ago, we wanted to give our resources and time to where we built our success, so the vast majority of our foundation’s grants are invested in local causes.

There has been a lot of press lately about the Silicon Valley Community Foundation, that it should do more to convince donors of pressing needs right here in Silicon Valley like homelessness and hunger. Nearly 25 percent of our population here lives in poverty—mostly Hispanic people living in the shadows.

Philanthropy: You’ve been very involved with homelessness.

Sobrato: I serve on the board of Destination: Home, which is encouraging corporate gifts to leverage a $950 million bond that was approved by Santa Clara County to build affordable housing for homeless people. Cisco and Schwab have each pledged $50 million, and Kaiser Permanente is offering $200 million.

We face stiff opposition, though, from homeowners in the neighborhoods where these homes would be built. They’re concerned about poor people walking around, accosting their children, breaking into cars. And a lot of homeless people will need support services—they might have drug habits, mental issues. We think those services can be placed on-site, and the neighborhood issues can be solved with the right management. But some neighbors threaten to use the California Environmental Quality Act to file lawsuits and delay projects for years and years.

There is legislation moving through the state right now saying that if you’re going to build for the chronically homeless you don’t have to go through the CEQA review. That would make a huge difference in getting these projects going. But you still need a local government that is sympathetic, and residents often threaten to vote to recall elected officials that support these projects. That’s why a lot of these buildings aren’t getting built, even though we now have a pile of money for that purpose.

Philanthropy: What causes in the Silicon Valley receive lots of support, and which ones are more neglected?

Sobrato: Stanford gets an inordinate amount of support. Its endowment is over $20 billion. Meanwhile there are thousands and thousands of people that rely on the food banks here to survive.

There are a few high-tech CEOs involved. Charles Robbins, the CEO of Cisco, is working on this homeless issue. Sheryl Sandberg, the COO of Facebook, is focused on hunger. The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative is national, but it is spending a lot of money in Silicon Valley trying to improve educational outcomes. So a few executives are into local causes. But they’re the exception. Most executives focus on where they were born.

Philanthropy: You’re also a funder of the Alliance for Catholic Education, which channels talented college graduates into teaching positions at poor Catholic schools, much as Teach For America does for public schools.

Sobrato: I met Father Tim Scully, who leads the ACE program, based out of Notre Dame in South Bend. They run an intensive summer program where recent graduates learn how to educate and mentor young kids. While they work in their assigned school for two years, the ACE instructors live together in a group house, where they reinforce each other’s growth in teaching and in faith. We started out by sponsoring a cohort of six teachers in Silicon Valley.

I met the teachers, and was impressed with what they were accomplishing. And the receiving schools were very happy with them. So I said we also had to create some successor effort locally. At Santa Clara University we started a similar program called ExCEL that I’m very involved in. Like ACE, ExCEL participants live in community and teach within the Diocese of San Jose. After three years they earn a M.A. in teaching from Santa Clara University. We graduated our first group this year.

I also started sponsoring another program at Notre Dame where they take students who have taught for two years through the ACE program, and train them on how to be a good principal of an urban Catholic school. They are called Sobrato Scholars, and we’ve doubled the number of participants since we started this program a year ago. Notre Dame receives between 200 and 300 applications from across the country every year for 60 to 70 spots.

This is not foundation money, it’s personal giving. The foundation focuses on Silicon Valley. The family does things in other places through our individual gifts. So I support ACE, and institutions like Catholic Relief Services and Cross Catholic International, which is based out of Florida and works with the poorest of the poor in third-world countries, in concert with local priests who identify needs. Right now, we’re building a preschool in Belize and CRS is distributing food to Syrian refugees.

Philanthropy : You’ve also worked closely with the Catholic diocese here in San Jose to create a strong governance model for managing its parish schools.

Sobrato: A diocese has a bunch of parishes, most with their own Catholic school, and the pastor is in charge of that school. Unfortunately, the pastor has a lot of demands on his time. There are funerals, weddings, sermons to prepare. Pastors really don’t have the time and expertise to run a school.

In San Jose, Father Brendan McGuire, who’s the vicar general, came up with a model for providing oversight of the schools through the diocesan offices rather than the local parish. They just hired a new superintendent for the San Jose diocese, who incidentally is an ACE leadership graduate.

Education is the surest way out of poverty. You need to have a good education to get a job that can pay you enough to live here. Amazingly, you have to make about $150,000 a year to rent a two-bedroom apartment in our region.

Philanthropy: And you’re very involved with Cristo Rey, the network of Catholic high schools that combine high academic standards with work in healthy businesses.

Sobrato: I was at a friend’s winery in Napa five years ago, having a glass of wine and talking to the fellow next to me. He said he was on the board of Cristo Rey in Denver. I asked him, “What’s Cristo Rey?” I had no idea. He explained the model, and I thought we ought to have one of those in San Jose, so I reached out and started working on it.

We created a founder’s circle of about a dozen people, had Father Foley come out to make a presentation, and did our best to raise money. Then I told Bishop

P. J. McGrath that I wanted to start a local Cristo Rey school, but needed a location. He told me about a school the diocese closed five years ago because the families in the neighborhood couldn’t afford the tuition. The building was vacant except for periodic catechism classes. I took a look, and it was a very small site, but I thought we could make it work.

We started with 130 students. Now we have 470. We just put up two additional buildings on campus, after raising $25 million.

The average income of a Cristo Rey family is less than $40,000 a year, with both husband and wife working. Consequently, many of our students’ families live by doubling or tripling up in apartments, or living in garages. So we offer nutritional meals at school for breakfast, lunch, and dinner for some students. But we still require families to pay something, even if it’s $50 or $100 a month for their child to attend. We want the family to have some skin in the game. After the family contribution, everything else is paid for. It costs us about $17,000 per student a year because we have to pay decent salaries to get good teachers in this area.

Our students work in industry one day a week and go to school four days a week, over an extended day, and an extended school year. We teach them how to type, work a spreadsheet, and other entry-level business skills so they can do meaningful work for our corporate partners, who pay the school $34,000 a year for the work done by a team of four students each putting in one day a week. We have students at tech firms like HP, Cisco, and Google, as well as local hospitals and law and accounting firms. Most of our students are bilingual so, for example, in hospitals they can translate for patients coming in who don’t speak English. The salaries they earn cover about 50 percent of the school’s operational costs, and our students see firsthand why it’s important to finish high school and go on to college.

We graduated our first senior class of 110 students this year. Every one was accepted to college and is planning to go. To give you a sense of how this has been received by the community, our graduation ceremony had to be held at Santa Clara University, even though we just built a multi-purpose hall that seats 500, because so many family members wanted to come.

Philanthropy: You’re also a proponent of blended learning, the educational method that uses intensive and personalized computer instruction to supplement classroom teaching.

Sobrato: Educational software is really improving dramatically. It’s amazing. It provides teachers with immediate, detailed feedback on exactly where a particular student is struggling.

That’s one of the reasons we’ve had such great success at Cristo Rey in San Jose. We’ve been able to raise test scores, especially in math and in English, by using blended learning. There are 34 schools in the Cristo Rey U.S. network, but we were early to start with blended-learning strategies, being in Silicon Valley. And they’ve worked so well that a lot of other Cristo Rey principals have come out and visited with us.

Philanthropy: Can you tell me about the Sobrato Early Academic Language model?

Sobrato: The idea behind SEAL is to quickly teach enough English to Spanish-speaking kids so that by the time they’re in third grade, they’re academically literate. Some of these kids can speak English, but not of a quality needed to answer an academic question. The focus, starting when the kids are three, is to make their vocabulary richer, not just in English, but also in Spanish. It is a dual-language environment; the classrooms are very lively.

We started six years ago with 1,500 kids in five local schools. Originally, we were paying 100 percent of the costs, about $3,000 a student. Now that the success of the model has been proven, school districts pay two thirds of the program cost, and we pay one third. And we’ve grown rapidly. We’re up to 50,000 students in 100 schools.

Philanthropy: You’re also not afraid to get involved with advocacy efforts when they are needed to improve the functioning of schools.

Sobrato: We’ve probably given $1 million to three or four different organizations that are working in education advocacy. We’re working with community groups to make sure that locally controlled funding dollars go to the right place. For example, when needy schools are given extra money by the funding authorities, the public-school managers often just spread the money across the board for salaries instead of focusing it on effective teaching. We have to change that type of thinking. A lot of things are screwed up in the California education system, including giving teachers tenure after two years. We’re working with different advocacy groups to try to change the rules.

Philanthropy: You recently gave a $100 million gift to your alma mater Santa Clara University for a new STEM building.

Sobrato: The irony is that I almost flunked out of Santa Clara because I wasn’t any good at math. As a freshman engineering major you also had to do very careful printing for drawings, and I had sloppy penmanship. I switched my major to business and was on the dean’s list from then on.

The first Sobrato gift to Santa Clara was from my mother and me—we donated a percentage from the sale of the building we put up for Lockheed back in 1962. That established the chair for the engineering dean in memory of my father.

For this latest gift, I want the building to set a new standard and differentiate Santa Clara from our neighboring institutions at Stanford, Berkeley, and San Jose State. Those institutions offer STEM programs, but at the graduate level. This building will support both undergraduates and graduate students; focused specifically on working in collaboration across disciplines. We’re going to start construction at the end of this year. We hope to have it finished by 2021.

I’m on campus about every two weeks, meeting with the staff and the architects. I’m very involved in the design and the materials—the stone, the doorknobs, the amount of glass in the building. I’m trying to make it more like a typical high-tech headquarters.

For example, in the past, all professors insisted on a little private office, a place where they can lock the door, have all their books on the wall. Their little cave. This is going to be different. Professors are going to have a private office, but it’s going to be all glass, with no lock on the door. It will look more like Facebook or Google. And I hope this will make them more accessible to students.

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John Albert Sobrato

Board chair emeritus, the sobrato organization; board chair emeritus, sobrato family foundation.

John A. Sobrato is the founder and Board Chair Emeritus of the Sobrato Organization, one of the most successful private real estate firms in California. His career in real estate dates back to 1958 when he began selling homes in Palo Alto at age 18 while attending Santa Clara University. He became the first salesperson in the Palo Alto Real Estate Board to be named to the Million Dollar Club.

At age 21, after his graduation with a business degree, he founded Midtown Realty, specializing in the resale of Eichler Homes. During the mid ‘60s, he expanded into commercial development working with his mother, Carl Berg and other investors. The Sobrato Development Company was thus formed over a decade before the area became known as Silicon Valley.

In 1974, he sold his interest in Midtown Realty, moved to Cupertino, and concentrated on developing industrial properties for the emerging high technology industry. Since its founding, the Sobrato Organization has developed over 21,480 million square feet of R&D and office buildings and 10,000 apartment units. Today, the firm still owns 27,870 million square feet of office and multi-family properties, 100% owned by the Sobrato Family without institutional partners.

In 1998, John A. and his family created the Sobrato Family Foundation which provides philanthropic support for Silicon Valley nonprofits. Since its founding, the Foundation has donated cash, real estate, and free office space totaling 550 million dollars. Today, seventy-three nonprofit agencies receive free office space in Sobrato Centers for Nonprofits totaling 350,000 square feet in Milpitas, San Jose, and Redwood City, and an additional site is planned in Palo Alto in the near future.

In 2007, the Sobrato Family Foundation was named the Foundation of the Year by the National Association of Nonprofits, among the more than one hundred and seventy-five foundations nominated for the coveted award. In 2013, the Sobrato Family Foundation was named the number one grantor in Northern California by the San Francisco Business Times. Every year since 2013, the Sobrato Family has been named the number one or two most generous corporation in Silicon Valley by the Silicon Valley Business Journal ahead of Cisco, Intel, Wells Fargo Bank, Google, and other major high-tech companies.

John A. and his wife Susan have been married for 59 years. They have three children and seven grandchildren. John Michael Sobrato, John A.'s son, is the current Board Chair Emeritus of The Sobrato Organization. John A. attributes the company’s success in the past 20 years to John Michael, who has worked at the firm since he was a teenager. Today the Sobrato Organization CEO is Matt Sonsini John’s son in law.

Organizations: Past President, Palo Alto Real Estate Board, Trustee University of Santa Clara, Regent Emeritus, Bellarmine High School, Past President, St Francis High School Foundation, Board Emeritus United Way and Valley Medical Center. Board member Parents Helping Parents, Job Train, Bay Area Council. Ravenswood Family Health Center. Vice-Chair Latino Education Advancement Foundation that operates three high schools in East San Jose. Co-Chair Real Estate Trust of the Silicon Valley Community Foundation and Chairman of The Sobrato Family Foundation.

Recent Awards: Honorary Doctorate Santa Clara University and the National Hispanic University, Junior Achievement Hall of Fame 1989, United Way De Tocqueville Man of the Year 1994, National Conference for Community and Justice Man of the Year 1998, National Society of Fund Raising Executives Philanthropist of the Year 1998, Santa Clara Council Boy Scouts Distinguished Citizen 2000, Peninsula Boys and Girls Club Leading Citizen 2006, City Year Leadership Award 2008, NAIOP Developer of the Decade 2008, Joint Venture Silicon Valley David Packard Civic Entrepreneur 2012. Lifetime Achievement Award by the Silicon Valley Leadership Group in 2016. Bay Area Council Business Hall of Fame in 2019. Bay Area Council 2020 Business Hall of Fame designee. 2020 William E. Simon Prize for Philanthropic Leadership .

John Sobrato's $15 million GRAN FINALE yacht

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Silicon Valley billionaire John Sobrato is leasing a two-acre plot of private land for $1 a year to help address the Bay Area's housing crisis

John Sobrato, 84, has offered the San Jose City Council the opportunity to construct a 150-bed solar-powered temporary housing complex on Via Del Oro
Sobrato said he approached the authority to offer his two-acre plot, which has sat unused for 30 years, after seeing spiraling homelessness in the area
San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan said the complex is 'designed to be movable when the city's lease runs out' so it can be launched again on another plot

A Silicon Valley billionaire is leasing a two-acre plot of private land to a city for just $1 a year to help address the Bay Area's housing crisis.

American real estate developer John Sobrato, 84, offered the San Jose City Council the opportunity to construct a 150-bed solar-powered temporary housing complex on Via Del Oro, Edenvale, in the south of the metropolis.

Sobrato said he approached the authority to offer his two-acre plot , which has sat unused for 30 years, after seeing increasing numbers of rough sleepers.

Although the plot lies in an industrial area, it is close to a bus line and the interstate and the project, which will be constructed by with social housing solutions company DignityMoves , has been hailed as an 'effort to end homelessness ' in the city.

Sobrato agreed to a five-year lease at just $1 a year, and San Jose councilors voted unanimously to approve the development on Tuesday.

San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan said the complex of cabins is 'designed to be movable when the city's lease runs out' so the 'quick-build community' can be launched again on another plot.

He thanked Sobrato Philanthropies, a real estate and philanthropy network, and DignityMoves founders Elizabeth Funk and Joanne Price for their generosity.

'This contribution is especially exciting because it allows to test a new approach that could help get privately-owned but currently unused private land off the sidelines and into the effort to end homelessness in San Jose,' Mahan said on X.

'I'm so proud of our city for pushing the envelope on homelessness and constantly striving to better our approach so we can help more people suffering and improve the quality of life for everyone.'

Mahan posted a photograph of what the bedroom cabins will look like, along with a sketch of the overall layout.

City officials said the development will also include shared kitchens and laundry rooms, outdoor seating, a parking lot and extra buildings to provide services like job training and substance abuse support.

Sobrato is worth $10.3billion per Bloomberg , and while he is leasing his land for a steal, the project is expected to cost the city around $18million, according to NBC.

San Jose is home to around 1million people, and it is the third most expensive city in the United States, behind only Manhattan and Honolulu, according to the latest report from the Council for Community and Economic Research .

The northern California city has become the nucleus of Silicon Valley tech culture, which is pushing prices up meaning thousands of people are unable to afford shelter.

More than 6,300 people are sleeping rough in the city this year, according to the latest homeless census figures .

The number of people without a home is skyrocketing in the US, and California is by far the worst-hit state .

It has about a third of all the country's homeless people, and Los Angeles, San Jose, Oakland and other Golden State cities have among the largest numbers of unsheltered people in the country.

The US Department of Housing and Urban Development says 582,462 people did not have a permanent home on the single night in January last year when researchers carried out their most recent snapshot survey.

Some 60 percent of the destitute were in shelters, crashing with friends or relatives, or had other temporary digs. The rest were 'unsheltered' — sleeping in cars, on the streets or in derelict buildings.

To capture the scale of the problem, DailyMail.com analyzed the department's data, which were released at the end of last year, to show which US states and cities have the worst homelessness rates.

They show that about a third of the entire US homeless population — 171,521 people — are in California. That includes more than half of the country's unsheltered homeless population, 115,491 people.

California also added 9,973 homeless people between 2020 and last year's survey.

The Golden State has the country's highest rate of homelessness, with 44 non-housed people out of every 10,000 residents. It is followed closely by Vermont, Oregon, and Hawaii.

REAL ESTATE

Silicon Valley philanthropist provides land to build tiny homes for San Jose's homeless

SAN JOSE, Calif. -- A Silicon Valley billionaire and philanthropist is providing land to the city of San Jose at almost no cost to build tiny homes that will help get people off the streets.

Real-estate developer John A. Sobrato and The Sobrato Organization are leasing the land to the city for $1 a year for at least five years.

The San Jose City Council on Wednesday unanimously approved the five-year land lease to build 150 beds of emergency interim housing on the site.

The Sobrato family noted that this project is one of many the organization is working on to provide more affordable housing in the region.

In a statement, John's son, John M. Sobrato said:

"My father's offer on behalf of the Sobrato Family Foundation of a five-year no-cost lease of the property on Via del Oro for interim housing, is an admirable effort to help one of San Jose's most vulnerable populations. It complements The Sobrato Organization's broader Housing Security Initiative, a pilot program to address housing insecurity in Silicon Valley through a three-pronged approach that includes preservation, production, and pro-housing policy."

San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan is equally excited for the opportunity.

"What this would do is open up private land to be part of the solution to homelessness," Mahan said. "That's not what we have done. All of our sites today are on publicly owned land, city owned land, VTA land, Caltrans land and this is a potential game changer."

New village of tiny homes will house 160 homeless in Sun Valley

The units will feature many of the amenities as other tiny home projects, but they will be solar-powered with limited hookups to allow them to be moved off site when the lease is up. There will still be private bathrooms, but in a group setting and not attached to the unit like other tiny homes.

Mahan says the average stay for residents in similar units is six to nine months, with more than 50% moving to permanent housing.

So, he says 1,500 people could be housed here over five years.

"It's creating a pipeline out of homelessness to combat the pipeline into homelessness that is far too common in our community today," Mayor Mahan said.

Some residents opposed

While the city views this plot of land as an absolute win, the surrounding community is not as happy.

"We have lost trust and are disappointed in our community representative and mayor," local resident Issa Ajlouny said.

Ajlouny says neighbors voiced their disapproval to this plan to their Councilmember Arjun Batra, saying South San Jose already has more tiny homes than other parts of the city.

"Councilmember Batra agreed no more tiny homes in this area and would include this in his memo," Ajlouny said. "The community was also surprised because his memo omitted this because the mayor would not agree. Councilmember Batra then told the community he would ask for a no encampment zone when the city council would vote. He failed the community again when he did not mention this in his motion."

The approved plan would prioritize unhoused residents currently close to the new site when deciding who gets to live on the property.

Councilmember Batra says the council will explore designated no encampment zones near tiny homes in the future.

"Our goal would be to get this new site built, have those encampments which are there nearby, those people who live nearby would move into those things and clear out encampment and hopefully never have another encampment appear in that area," Councilmember Batra said.

Construction is likely to begin in early to mid 2024.

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Billionaire John Sobrato Is Leasing His Land for $1 to Tackle Homelessness

If successful, the temporary leasing of private land for interim housing could become a mainstay in san jose..

John Sobrato , a Silicon Valley real estate developer, is experimenting with a new way to tackle homelessness in the Bay Area. For just $1 annually, the billionaire is leasing more than two acres of his land to serve as the site for a temporary 150-bed housing project in San Jose, California.

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View of San Jose cityscape surrounded by hills

The project, which was unanimously approved yesterday (Oct. 17) by the San Jose City Council, could lead to more innovative housing solutions in the region. “It gets private property into the effort to end street homelessness,” said San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan during the council meeting. “There is a lot of underutilized privately held property that up until this point has sat on the sidelines because there hasn’t been a good replicable model for getting those private property owners engaged.”

SEE ALSO: The Young Billionaires Who’ve Pledged Away Their Wealth

Sobrato, who has an estimated net worth of $5.3 billion , is the founder of the Sobrato Organization, a real estate company that counts Netflix, Apple and Amazon among its tenants. He first proposed the housing project back in March, calling up Mahan to offer up his land after learning about the city’s struggle to find viable interim shelter sites for its population of approximately 4,400 homeless people. The plot of land is in South San Jose and will be used for interim housing over a five-year lease, after which it would be used for private commercial or industrial purposes. Construction of the quick-build shelter is scheduled to be completed by mid-2024. If the project is successful, San Jose may consider rotating similar communities around the city as private property sites become viable for development, according to Mahan.

In addition to the $1 leasing of Sobrato’s land, $3 million in discounts will be provided by housing developers, architects and construction companies working on the venture. Taking into account the construction and relocation of the shelters, the entire project is expected to cost about $18 million. Named Via del Oro, it will consist of 75 two-bed cabins and 15 duplex-sized ones, in addition to amenities like bathroom units, laundry, kitchens, outdoor seating and parking. Via del Oro planners are also considering running the quick-build shelter with an off-grid solar electrical system.

A history of philanthropy in the Bay Area

Sobrato’s offer “complements the Sobrato Organization’s broader Housing Security Initiative, a pilot program to address housing insecurity in Silicon Valley through a three-pronged approach that includes preservation, production, and pro-housing policy,” said his son John Michael in a statement. For this initiative, Sobrato in June acquired an old apartment complex in Santa Clara at $26.1 million. Instead of introducing the major upgrades often undertaken by developers as a way to raise rent, Sobrato announced he would only make necessary improvements in a bid to keep rent affordable for its 68 units.

The billionaire is also on the board of Destination: Home, a nonprofit working to end homelessness and previously donated $5 million to a homeless housing facility in San Mateo. Other major donors must focus on the housing crisis so that the Bay Area doesn’t remain “an area of haves and have-nots,” he told the San Jose Spotlight in 2021. “Philanthropy has to step up and help these people.”

Sobrato’s charitable efforts extend beyond housing. Donating upwards of $100 million annually through the Sobrato Family Foundation, which was launched in 1996, his notable gifts have included $20 million in funding to the Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital and a $100 million donation to his alma mater, Santa Clara University. The real estate mogul has committed to giving away 100 percent of his wealth during his lifetime and is a signee of the Giving Pledge alongside his wife Susan and son John Michael, making them the first multi-generation family to join the philanthropic campaign.

Billionaire John Sobrato Is Leasing His Land for $1 to Tackle Homelessness

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Cruising the Moskva River: A short guide to boat trips in Russia’s capital

There’s hardly a better way to absorb Moscow’s atmosphere than on a ship sailing up and down the Moskva River. While complicated ticketing, loud music and chilling winds might dampen the anticipated fun, this checklist will help you to enjoy the scenic views and not fall into common tourist traps.

How to find the right boat?

There are plenty of boats and selecting the right one might be challenging. The size of the boat should be your main criteria.

Plenty of small boats cruise the Moskva River, and the most vivid one is this yellow Lay’s-branded boat. Everyone who has ever visited Moscow probably has seen it.

This option might leave a passenger disembarking partially deaf as the merciless Russian pop music blasts onboard. A free spirit, however, will find partying on such a vessel to be an unforgettable and authentic experience that’s almost a metaphor for life in modern Russia: too loud, and sometimes too welcoming. Tickets start at $13 (800 rubles) per person.

Bigger boats offer smoother sailing and tend to attract foreign visitors because of their distinct Soviet aura. Indeed, many of the older vessels must have seen better days. They are still afloat, however, and getting aboard is a unique ‘cultural’ experience. Sometimes the crew might offer lunch or dinner to passengers, but this option must be purchased with the ticket. Here is one such option offering dinner for $24 (1,490 rubles).

If you want to travel in style, consider Flotilla Radisson. These large, modern vessels are quite posh, with a cozy restaurant and an attentive crew at your service. Even though the selection of wines and food is modest, these vessels are still much better than other boats.

Surprisingly, the luxurious boats are priced rather modestly, and a single ticket goes for $17-$32 (1,100-2,000 rubles); also expect a reasonable restaurant bill on top.

How to buy tickets?

Women holding photos of ships promise huge discounts to “the young and beautiful,” and give personal invitations for river tours. They sound and look nice, but there’s a small catch: their ticket prices are usually more than those purchased online.

“We bought tickets from street hawkers for 900 rubles each, only to later discover that the other passengers bought their tickets twice as cheap!” wrote (in Russian) a disappointed Rostislav on a travel company website.

Nevertheless, buying from street hawkers has one considerable advantage: they personally escort you to the vessel so that you don’t waste time looking for the boat on your own.

Prices start at $13 (800 rubles) for one ride, and for an additional $6.5 (400 rubles) you can purchase an unlimited number of tours on the same boat on any given day.

Flotilla Radisson has official ticket offices at Gorky Park and Hotel Ukraine, but they’re often sold out.

Buying online is an option that might save some cash. Websites such as this offer considerable discounts for tickets sold online. On a busy Friday night an online purchase might be the only chance to get a ticket on a Flotilla Radisson boat.

This website (in Russian) offers multiple options for short river cruises in and around the city center, including offbeat options such as ‘disco cruises’ and ‘children cruises.’ This other website sells tickets online, but doesn’t have an English version. The interface is intuitive, however.

Buying tickets online has its bad points, however. The most common is confusing which pier you should go to and missing your river tour.

“I once bought tickets online to save with the discount that the website offered,” said Igor Shvarkin from Moscow. “The pier was initially marked as ‘Park Kultury,’ but when I arrived it wasn’t easy to find my boat because there were too many there. My guests had to walk a considerable distance before I finally found the vessel that accepted my tickets purchased online,” said the man.

There are two main boarding piers in the city center: Hotel Ukraine and Park Kultury . Always take note of your particular berth when buying tickets online.

Where to sit onboard?

Even on a warm day, the headwind might be chilly for passengers on deck. Make sure you have warm clothes, or that the crew has blankets ready upon request.

The glass-encased hold makes the tour much more comfortable, but not at the expense of having an enjoyable experience.

Getting off the boat requires preparation as well. Ideally, you should be able to disembark on any pier along the way. In reality, passengers never know where the boat’s captain will make the next stop. Street hawkers often tell passengers in advance where they’ll be able to disembark. If you buy tickets online then you’ll have to research it yourself.

There’s a chance that the captain won’t make any stops at all and will take you back to where the tour began, which is the case with Flotilla Radisson. The safest option is to automatically expect that you’ll return to the pier where you started.

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Put-in tours

Original tour agency in moscow and st petersburg..

Onboard a Soviet van!

Welcome to Russia!

We are Sergey and Simon, a Russian and a Frenchman, both passionate about Moscow, Saint-Petersburg and classic cars. Together, we have created Put-in tours. Our goal is to help you experience Russian culture off the beaten path. Join us onboard our classic Soviet van and let’s get rolling!

In Moscow we offer you a city tour to discover most of the city in an original way as well as a night tour to admire the lights. Our pubcrawl is ideal to explore Moscow’s night-life and have fun. If you are craving to discover Russian culture, come impress your senses during our monastery diner or join our 100% Russian Banya Excursion . The latest will also bring you to Sergiyev Posad and it’s famous monastery!

For the most extreme travellers, our shooting tour will deliver your daily dose of adrenaline whereas our tank excursion will let you ride a real tank and shoot a bazooka.

We also offer help to receive your visa , safe and multilingual airport transfers , as well as organisation services for team-building events or bachelor parties .

All our excursions (but the monastery diner) happen onboard our Soviet military vans and can be covered by our professionnal photographer or videographer.

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Continue your discovery in style! The adrenaline lovers will like our shooting tour which brings 3 Russian weapons to the tip of your trigger finger.

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At Put-in tours, we put you in our classic Soviet vans to go explore Moscow, Saint Petersburg and Russian culture off the beaten path. Discover our Moscow city guided tour, visit Moscow by night, join our banya & Sergiyev Posad excursion, visit and dine in one of Moscow's oldest monastery or even Luzhniki stadium, before you party on our famous pubcrawl! Original and atypical tours : Shoot AK47 and a bazooka after riding on a tank with our tank & bazooka excursion ! Extreme tours: Fly a fighter jet in Moscow onboard a L-29 or L-39 aircraft!

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High School Sports | Prep roundup: Benicia dominates another…

High School Sports

Subscriber only, high school sports | prep roundup: benicia dominates another softball opponent, improves to 8-0, softball: benicia outscoring opponents 99-13 this season; gilroy, homestead, sobrato win. baseball: sequoia edges half moon bay in walk-off fashion; oak grove, encinal, mt. eden prevail..

No. 10 Benicia 10, Sheldon-Sacramento 0 (5 innings)

Another game, another dominating result for Benicia.

The Panthers stretched their season-opening winning streak to eight games on Monday, blowing out a seventh consecutive opponent behind balanced hitting and Sinead Maas’ superb pitching.

Benicia scored two in the visitor’s half of the first inning and added six more in the second to put away its Sacramento opponent.

Suae Beatty , Ava Rojas , Aryanna Banks-Lockhart , Emma French and Ava Pannell each had two hits as Benicia dropped Sheldon’s record to 10-4.

The Panthers have not trailed all season and only one team — Liberty, in the opener — had a shot going to the final inning. But after Liberty tied the score in the sixth, Benicia responded with two in the seventh to win.

The Panthers have not looked back.

Including the 7-5 victory over Liberty, they have outscored their eight opponents 99-13, which is about the same level of dominance top-ranked St. Francis has had this season.

The undefeated Mountain View powerhouse has outscored its 13 opponents 96-11.

In Benicia’s win Monday, Banks-Lockhart doubled and knocked in two runs and Maas allowed three hits and struck out four before the game was called after five innings because of the mercy rule.

Benicia opens Diablo Athletic League Foothill Division play on Thursday against 18th-ranked College Park.

No. 15 Gilroy 6, North Salinas 1

Andrea Alvarez went 4 for 4 with three doubles and an RBI and Dani Wilson had three hits and drove in three runs to lead Gilroy to a nonleague victory at home over North Salinas.

Jocelyn Ta pitched four innings and Ariela Yslava was in the pitcher’s circle for three innings as Gilroy ran its record to 11-4.

North Salinas is 8-7.

Homestead 1, Fremont-Sunnyvale 0

Freshman MacKenzie Smith pitched a two-hitter and Cierra Hagan , another freshman, knocked in the only run as Homestead defeated visiting Fremont in a Santa Clara Valley Athletic League De Anza Division game.

Homestead improved to 6-4-1, 3-1. Fremont is 3-10, 0-6.

Sobrato 3, No. 19 Leigh 1

Tied 1-1 after four innings, Sobrato scored a run in the fifth and another in the sixth to defeat host Leigh in a Blossom Valley Athletic League Mt. Hamilton Division game.

Kiera Garcia , Brooklyn Amato and Sunny Fernandez drove in runs for Sobrato, which also got 13 combined strikeouts from pitchers Sam Zimmerman and Kiyah Vasquez .

Brianna Buchanan knocked in Leigh’s only run.

Sobrato improved to 9-4, 5-2. Leigh is 6-7, 2-5.

Oak Grove 9, James Lick 0

Eric Pavia had three hits, scored twice and knocked in a run and Brandon Stewart added two hits, including a triple, and drove in two runs to lead host Oak Grove past James Lick in a nonleague game.

Pavia, Eric Rodriguez , Jordan McCoy and Serena Martinez combined on a three-hitter as Oak Grove improved to 8-8.

James Lick is 4-2.

Sequoia 8, Half Moon Bay 7

Vincent Olinger Giani’s bunt with the bases loaded brought in the winning run in the bottom of the seventh as Sequoia edged Half Moon Bay in nonleague play.

Morgan Winfield had two hits, including a home run, and Spencer Haderle added two hits to help lead the way. Both also drove in two runs.

Mario Garcia homered, too, for Sequoia and had two RBIs as the Ravens improved to 9-8.

Aidan Vazquez and Riley Jackson each hit home runs for Half Moon Bay, which slipped to 7-10.

Encinal 4, Head-Royce 2

Encinal scored four in the home half of the first to erase a one-run deficit and went on to beat Head-Royce in nonleague play.

Anthony Wilson doubled, scored a run and drove in a run and pitchers Mateo McMinn , Anthony Wilson and Zach Pippen combined to scatter four hits with six strikeouts.

Encinal improved to 8-6. Head-Royce dropped to 8-2.

Mt. Eden 8, Bethel 2

Javier Alfaro III doubled twice and had two RBIs and Mateo Romo and Andy Figaroa also both drove in two runs as Mt. Eden rolled at home in nonleague play.

Mt. Eden is 4-8. Bethel fell to 4-13.

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IMAGES

JOHN SOBRATO • Net Worth $6 Billion • House • Yacht • Private Jet
JOHN SOBRATO • Net Worth $6 Billion • House • Yacht • Private Jet
GRAN FINALE Yacht • John Sobrato $15M Superyacht
John Sobrato: A Pioneer in Real Estate and Philanthropy
JOHN SOBRATO • Net Worth $6 Billion • House • Yacht • Private Jet
GRAN FINALE Yacht • John Sobrato $15M Superyacht

VIDEO

Sobrato Graduation Ceremony 2023
Sobrato @ Harbor

COMMENTS

GRAN FINALE Yacht • John Sobrato $15M Superyacht
The yacht is owned by American billionaire John Sobrato, the founder of the Sobrato Organization. The estimated value of the yacht Gran Finale is around $15 million, with annual running costs of about $2 million. The price of a yacht like Gran Finale may vary greatly depending on its size, age, level of luxury.
Meet John Sobrato, Sobrato Organization
On a polished credenza in John A. Sobrato's corner office in Cupertino sits a scale model of his 147-foot yacht, the only item on the eight-foot-long sideboard. The modern white craft's long sleek lines and pointed bow make it easy to imagine the boat cruising on the high seas, destined for exotic ports, Sobrato at the helm.
The Personal and the Collective: How Three Generations of the
John A. and Susan Sobrato, along with John Michael and Timi Sobrato, are the first multi-generational signatories of the Giving Pledge, both signing in 2018. John A. Sobrato tells me that he received a personal call from Warren Buffett, who gave him the pitch. Sobrato initially thought it was his old business partner Carl Berg, known for such ...
John A. Sobrato & family
About John A. Sobrato & family. Real estate mogul John A. Sobrato began selling homes in Palo Alto while he was still a student at Santa Clara University. He later worked with his mother to ...
Superyachtfan
The yacht Gran Finale was built by Delta Marine in 2002. Her owner is real estate investor John Sobrato. He started investing in commercial and residential real estate in the 1950s. (Actually he started together with his mother, who sold the family's restaurant to invest in rental properties). His net worth is now $6 billion.
San Jose Legends: John Sobrato's generosity is everywhere
Sobrato is the 297th richest person in the world in 2021 according to Bloomberg and the 14th richest person in Silicon Valley in 2019 according to numbers from Forbes. His family's net worth is an estimated $8.8 billion. "We were in the right place at the right time," he said.
The $8 Billion Property Tycoon Who Helped Shape Silicon Valley
5:44. John A. Sobrato may be the richest person in Silicon Valley not to have made his money from technology. The real estate developer and his family have built an $8 billion fortune developing ...
Interview with John Sobrato
John Sobrato is a family man running a family business, plus a family philanthropy. The only child of two hardworking Italian immigrants, during his sophomore year of college Sobrato started helping his mom with her real-estate investments, and selling homes in Silicon Valley for $20,000. A year after his graduation in 1960, the mother-son duo organized their first industrial project for a ...
John A. Sobrato is the Pioneer of the Year in the Silicon Valley
#StructuresAwards 2021: John A. Sobrato, 2021 Pioneer of the Year, wants to make Silicon Valley a place where all people can thrive. #SiliconValley #CRE #RealEstate #CommercialRealEstate
How the Billionaire Sobrato Family Got Started in Climate Philanthropy
With a family fortune estimated at nearly $6 billion, thanks to a business that reached $10 billion in assets a few years ago, plus a commitment from John M. and his parents, John A. and Susan Sobrato, to donate 100% of their wealth during their lifetimes or upon their deaths, these could be the first steps of a family of climate mega-donors.
John Albert Sobrato
John A. Sobrato is the founder and Board Chair Emeritus of the Sobrato Organization, one of the most successful private real estate firms in California. His career in real estate dates back to 1958 when he began selling homes in Palo Alto at age 18 while attending Santa Clara University. He became the first salesperson in the Palo Alto Real ...
Up Close and Personal With John Sobrato
John Sobrato is a giant among real estate developers in California. The Sobrato Organization, a family-owned company, owns and manages more than 86 commercial properties in Silicon Valley and has developed and built more than 250 office and research and development facilities for such household names as Apple and Netflix.
John Sobrato's $15 million GRAN FINALE yacht · Santa Clara University
superyachtfan.com, "John Sobrato's $15 million GRAN FINALE yacht," Santa Clara University Digital Exhibits, accessed March 21, 2024, https://dh.scu.edu/exhibits ...
John Sobrato: A Pioneer in Real Estate and Philanthropy
Delve into the life of John Sobrato, the founder of Sobrato Development, a titan in the real estate industry, and a prominent philanthropist, known for his immense contributions to charitable causes. His net worth is $6 billion. He is owner of the yacht Gran Finale.
Silicon Valley billionaire John Sobrato is leasing a two-acre ...
John Sobrato (inset), 84, has offered the San Jose City Council the opportunity to construct a 150-bed solar-powered temporary housing complex on Via Del Oro.
Silicon Valley developer John Sobrato providing land to San Jose to
The Sobrato family noted that this project is one of many the organization is working on to provide more affordable housing in the region. In a statement, John's son, John M. Sobrato said:
Billionaire John Sobrato Leases His Land for $1 to Tackle ...
John Sobrato, a Silicon Valley real estate developer, is experimenting with a new way to tackle homelessness in the Bay Area. For just $1 annually, the billionaire is leasing more than two acres ...
Moscow river cruises and boat tours 2024
Buy tickets. River Cruise aboard a River Palace Yacht from City-Expocentre (International Exhibition) HIT SALES. Daily, from April 25, 2024. Departure from the berth City-Expocentre (m. Vystavochnaya), mooring place "A". Cruise duration 3 hours. We invite you on a river cruise aboard a premium class panoramic yacht starting from the main Moscow ...
Cruising the Moskva River: A short guide to boat trips in Russia's
Surprisingly, the luxurious boats are priced rather modestly, and a single ticket goes for $17-$32 (1,100-2,000 rubles); also expect a reasonable restaurant bill on top.
Softball Game Recap: Leigh Longhorns vs. Ann Sobrato Bulldogs
Leigh now has a losing record at 6-7. As for Ann Sobrato, the win (which was their third in a row) raised their record to 9-4. Leigh will look to defend their home field on Wednesday against Live Oak at 4:00 p.m. Leigh is strutting in with some hitting muscle, as they've averaged 6.5 runs per game this season. As for Ann Sobrato, they will head ...
Baseball Game Preview: Pioneer Mustangs vs. Ann Sobrato Bulldogs
The Pioneer Mustangs will be playing in front of their home fans against the Ann Sobrato Bulldogs at 4:00 p.m. on Tuesday. Pioneer will be strutting in after a win while Ann Sobrato will be coming in after a loss. Last Saturday, Pioneer beat Menlo-Atherton 7-3. Nate Tichy made a splash no matter where he played. On the mound, he tossed an ...
JOHN SOBRATO: Ein Pionier in Immobilien und Philanthropie
Yachtbesitzer-Datenbank. Tauchen Sie ein in das Leben von John Sobrato, dem Gründer von Sobrato Development, einem Giganten der Immobilienbranche und prominenten Philanthrop, der für seine immensen Spenden für wohltätige Zwecke bekannt ist. Sein Nettovermögen beträgt $6 Milliarden. Er ist Eigentümer der Yacht Gran Finale.
Tours in Moscow and St Petersburg
Welcome to Russia! We are Sergey and Simon, a Russian and a Frenchman, both passionate about Moscow, Saint-Petersburg and classic cars. Together, we have created Put-in tours. Our goal is to help you experience Russian culture off the beaten path. Join us onboard our classic Soviet van and let's get rolling!
Baseball Game Recap: Ann Sobrato Bulldogs vs. Willow Glen Rams
Ann Sobrato's defeat dropped their record down to 2-10. As for Willow Glen, their victory ended a four-game drought on the road and puts them at 9-7. Both squads will have to hit the road in their upcoming games. Ann Sobrato will challenge Pioneer at 4:00 p.m. on Tuesday. Pioneer's pitching crew has only allowed 3.7 runs per game this season ...
Softball Game Recap: Ann Sobrato Bulldogs vs. Leigh Longhorns
Ann Sobrato will head out on the road to take on Branham at 4:00 p.m. on Wednesday. Branham's pitching crew has only allowed 3.3 runs per game this season, so Ann Sobrato's hitters will have their work cut out for them. As for Leigh, they have the luxury of staying home for another game and will welcome Live Oak at 4:00 p.m. on Wednesday.
Prep roundup: Benicia (8-0) dominates another softball opponent
Softball: Benicia outscoring opponents 99-13 this season; Gilroy, Homestead, Sobrato win. Baseball: Sequoia edges Half Moon Bay in walk-off fashion; Oak Grove, Encinal, Mt. Eden prevail.
F2 2020 Autodrom Moscow
Here's an F2 onboard lap at the Autodrom Moscow in Moscow, Russia. This hotlap is driven in Assetto Corsa with Robert Shwartzman in the F2 2020 car, using th...
Baseball Game Preview: Ann Sobrato Bulldogs vs. Pioneer Mustangs
The Ann Sobrato Bulldogs will head out on the road to take on the Pioneer Mustangs at 4:00 p.m. on Tuesday. Ann Sobrato has now lost nine straight, leaving the team hunting for their first win since February 27. Saturday just wasn't the day for Ann Sobrato's offense. They fell victim to a rough 11-0 defeat at the hands of Willow Glen on Saturday.

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