When Kanye West sold for millions of dollars in losses, Tony Malibu’s home was sold again.
The property, listed at $39 million, is in renovation as its new owner revokes Ye’s head drawing reshaping option. The home was completed in 2013 and was designed by Pritzker Award winner Japanese architect Tadao Ando. Owner Bo Belmont said it would take millions of dollars to restore it to its former glory.
The rest of the work and houses are part of the community destroyed by the Palisades fire, which appears to be two strikes. But Belmont didn’t see it that way. The owner of Belwood Investments believes that just as the house survived, the cachet in Malibu survived.
Tadao Ando designed the master bedroom and deck of the house are working on.
(Myung J. Chun/Los Angeles Times)
Belmont said he and his team had completed a renovation worth about $2 million on the concrete house, before returning it to the state before being acquired by Ye, which removed windows, doors, electricity and pipes and damaged walls. Belmont estimates that the House still needs an additional $6.5 million in work.
But Belmont said he was happy to split the property now at the right price.
“We did the math. We can now sell, exit and have someone add everything they want. … If we exit now, or if we exit after we are done, that’s the same ROI for us.”
Ron Radziner, who runs Ron Radziner, a design and construction company, for the initial construction of the house, is now working to restore the house to its original appearance. This means revoking the concrete walls removed by Ye to replace the removed cabinets and reordered doors.
“Obviously, most of the houses were demolished and removed,” Radziner said. “But I think we all felt very lucky with our team that we were asked to come back and put it back.”
Radziner said that so far, only about 20% of the reconstruction has been completed. He has a team of about 40 people every day. He said your most disturbing action is to remove the concrete wall.
“It’s hard to understand what forces these works out,” he said.
Project manager Katerina Salonikidi on the left and Foreman Sergio Marin from the design firm Marmol Radziner.
(Myung J. Chun/Los Angeles Times)
Belmont said that while the renovation is still in its early stages, the property’s offer has begun to come in, but so far the asking price is below the $39 million asking price. Belmont believes there is new interest in the Malibu property that survived the Palisades fire.
“It’s made of concrete. It’s a Malibu road that hasn’t been affected. So now Malibu has lost its exclusivity for a while,” Belmont said. “The reason people go to Malibu is to stay away from the hustle and bustle of paparazzi and Los Angeles,” he said.
“Now, Malibu seems to be returning to exclusiveness,” he said. “I think that’s a big reason why we get verbal offers.”
Belmont owns a company that allows people to “micro-invest” in their properties as if they were stocks. When these properties were sold, Belmont paid many investors with their holdings. Therefore, he would rather sell his home soon, Belmont said. Belmont told the Times that 500 investors invested between $10 and $1 million on Malibu Road House.
The stairs lead to the beach of the house, where Malibu Road is not affected by the Palisade fire.
(Myung J. Chun/Los Angeles Times)
The four-bedroom beachfront property was reportedly built for former currency manager Richard Sachs, but was purchased by YE for $57 million in 2021.
Belmont bought the home from Ye for $21 million and in a September interview with Times called some of his decisions about the property “stupid”.
Belmont is an entrepreneur with a complex history. He stayed in jail for three years after being charged with attempted murder in a pitchfork attack in Napa County.
(“I shouldn’t have put the pitchfork belt in boxing,” Belmont told The Times.
Now, Belmont said the fire that destroyed Los Angeles was helping the home he was trying to sell, but it didn’t burn.
“The fires really strengthened our value and increased the appeal to our properties,” he said.
