Deeds swapped between Victor Makras and former mayor Willie Brown after Makras arrest

Tone at the top of San Francisco's City Family is deafening silence

In the September 2021 issue of the Marina Times newspaper, I penned a Reynolds Rap column about the cozy relationship between Mayor London Breed, former mayor Willie Brown, and former Port and SFPUC commissioner Victor Makras and his wife, Farah. Despite the City Hall corruption stories I had written over the past two years (and the Federal indictments that followed), the tone at the top of San Francisco’s City Family was deafening silence with a fair bit of arrogance thrown in for good measure.

I pointed out that Mr. and Mrs. Makras regularly hosted the mayor and the former mayor at their Marina Boulevard home for exclusive parties and political fundraisers. The couple even hosted a reception for Breed’s mayoral campaign in 2018 (with a “suggested contribution” of $500 a head). Mrs. Makras was also photographed with Breed attending a Nov. 7, 2019 birthday party for socialite Gorretti Lo Lui at The French Laundry, star chef Thomas Keller’s Michelin-starred restaurant in Yountville, held just one day after and in the same room as Gov. Gavin Newsom’s infamous dinner. For their generosity, the couple received unprecedented access to mayors from Brown to Breed, as well as numerous appointments to boards and commissions.

On August 21, 2021 Farah and Victor Makras threw a private birthday party for the Mayor at Kokkari Estiatorio, an upscale Greek restaurant in the Financial District, with Brown and his longtime partner Sonya Molodestskaya also in attendance. The caption for the photo on Instagram read, “a simple celebration, a gathering of friends,” but the custom cake by Camisha’s Cakes, designed to look like one of Breed’s houseplants, was likely in the $500 range. The video of Breed receiving her houseplant cake is on YouTube courtesy of Farah Makras.

Two months after that party, on October 19, 2021, the United States Department of Justice announced a Grand Jury indictment accusing Victor Makras of mortgage and bank fraud in a scheme involving ousted Public Utilities Commission general manager Harlan Kelly, who was previously charged in November 2020 with fraud involving notorious permit expediter and contractor Walter Wong working on his house (a story I broke in July of 2020). Just last week, almost a year to the day of Breed’s “simple celebration” with her friends, a federal grand jury convicted Makras of making false statements to a bank and of bank fraud tied to misrepresentations made in a mortgage refinance loan application for Kelly and his wife, former city administrator Naomi Kelly. The maximum prison sentence for both counts is a combined total of 60 years.

Breed has remained silent on Makras, just as she has on other City Family members going down in the corruption scandal. The patriarch of the City Family, Willie Brown, who also “mentored” many of those same officials, usually has a lot to say, but he, too, has been tightlipped about Makras, perhaps because starting on November 30, 2021 — one month after Makras was arrested — Brown and Makras swapped five real estate deeds on a building they co-own, three going to Brown, and two going to Makras.

244 Lakeside Drive

The property in question, 244 Lakeside Drive, is an 11-story apartment building near Oakland’s Lake Merritt featuring 20 apartments, a commercial ballroom, a boathouse, and a two-bedroom penthouse. In 2015, it was the subject of a legal battle between Brown, his wife, Blanche, and Joe O’Donoghue, who, along with his Residential Builders Association, was a powerful force during the live/work loft construction that exploded during the dot-com era. O’Donoghue’s group contributed big bucks to politicians, including then-mayor Brown, who appointed O’Donoghue allies to jobs in the city’s planning agencies — those same agencies now under Federal scrutiny.

Brown invested in the property in 2006, and eventually Blanche (though legally still married, the couple has long lived separate lives) and their two adult daughter moved in. Sherrie Matza, O’Donoghue’s longtime companion, filed a lawsuit accusing the Browns and the Makrases of multiple partnership breaches involving the Lake Merritt apartment building, which they purchased together (O’Donoghue was not a partner in 244 Lakeside Drive).

When a plan by the Browns and the Makrases to donate a 30,000-square-foot garden at the rear of the property to the city in exchange for tax credits didn’t work out, former San Francisco Building Inspection Commission member Roy Guinnane, also a partner in the building, teamed up with San Francisco builder David O’Keefe and Matza to instead develop condominiums, with O’Keefe paying nearly $4 million for the Browns’ and Makrases’ share of the yard.

O’Donoghue said the Browns were against the proposed 30-story condo tower, to be called Emerald Views, from the start because it would ruin the views from their own building. O’Donoghue also bristled that neither the Browns nor the Makrases would sign off to allow the front of their apartment building to be used as a construction staging area for the new condos. The Browns then countersued, accusing O’Donoghue of elder abuse and infliction of emotional distress just days after O’Donoghue changed the locks to Blanche Brown’s storage locker and moved the building’s garbage bins because of the mess created by her remodeling contractors.

The dueling lawsuits were settled in 2016, but many of the key players — the Browns, the Makrases, Matza, and Guinnane — appear on deeds for 244 Lakeside Drive as grantors and grantees. On March 25, 2022, Victor Makras sold one unit for $1,214,000, and on April 13, 2022, he sold another unit for $650,000. Those transactions did not involve Brown, but in the time since his arrest Makras has had 18 real estate document filings at the Alameda County Clerk-Recorder's Office for 244 Lakeside Drive, five of which were deed swaps with Brown. Two of those swaps occurred on November 30, 2021 and three occurred on March 24, 2022. All five occurring after the Makras arrest.

11/30/21 —1:1 deed swap. First deed (ending 635) to Makras. Second one (636) to Brown.

3/24/22 — 2:1 deed swap, in Brown’s favor. Brown gets the first two deeds (ending in 970, 971); Makras gets the third (ending in 972).

The last parcel Brown transferred to Makras (ending in 972) on March 24, 2022, has a distinct Assessor Parcel Number (APN), 008-0634-077. One day later, on March 25, 2022, it appears that Makras “flipped” that parcel (document ending in 513). That deed has the same APN as the above document 972, which appears to be the apartment Makras sold for $1,214,000.

During an April 4, 2020, interview with the Nob Hill Gazette, Brown admitted he was helping Mohammed Nuru, the former public works director recently sentenced to seven years in federal prison for fraud, by contributing to his legal defense. “I am being pilloried by all of these social media broadcasters, so to speak. ‘Why would you do that?’ Why would I do what? Here’s somebody in need, who’s a friend, been a helper. Why wouldn’t I reach out to help?” Maybe the real estate swaps on 244 Lakeside Drive are just another example of Brown helping a friend in need — only this time, with some deeds.

Follow Susan on Twitter: @SusanDReynolds