Back in fall 2021, Kanye West doled out a whopping $57.3 million in cash for an oceanfront Malibu house designed by noted Japanese architect Tadao Ando. Shortly afterward, the music mogul-turned-Yeezy fashion designer controversially gutted the residence in preparation for a redesign, ripping out all the windows, doors, and interior finishes before changing his mind and flipping the vacant and uninhabitable concrete shell back on the market this past January at a steep $53 million. Alas, there were no takers, and within a few months the price had been slashed all the way down to $39 million. Now, after nearly three years languishing and exposed to the elements, the property is finally in escrow to be sold for $21 million—a staggering $36 million less than West paid.
As first reported by The Real Deal, the discount-minded buyer is Belwood Investments, a California-based real estate crowdfunding firm that’s been flipping homes since 2018. The new owner plans to raise at least $5 million to restore the unfinished property to its original state during the next 12 to 16 months and then put it back up for sale at around $40 million.
“We are incredibly excited about the acquisition of this property,” said Belwood founder and owner Steven “Bo” Belmont via a press release. “This is not just a phenomenal real estate investment; it is an opportunity to revitalize and preserve an architectural gem by the renowned Tadao Ando, ensuring it remains a jewel of Malibu. This acquisition exemplifies Belwood Investments’ commitment to transforming properties with historical and architectural significance while delivering exceptional returns for our investors.”
The Malibu Road home before West stripped it of windows, doors and all interior fittings.
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Originally designed and built for financier and art collector Richard Sachs by the Pritzker Prize-winning Japanese architect, the 4,000-square-foot residence was completed in 2013 in collaboration with the architecture firm Marmol Radziner using 1,200 tons of concrete and 200 tons of reinforced steel. Though current photos are scarce, listings show the house was designed with four bedrooms and five baths in just over 4,000 square feet, with roughly 1,500 square feet of outdoor decks providing ocean views, but it’s currently devoid of plumbing, electrical, HVAC, and interior finishes.
A broker price opinion report prepared for Belwood by Rugiero estimates the property’s final value once restored will top $50 million, while other brand-new or freshly rehabbed homes along this same stretch of sand typically go for around $20 million. However, the Brutalist structure is one of only a handful of U.S. buildings designed by the 82-year-old Ando, who’s been called “Hollywood’s favorite starchitect” and whose homes are regarded as “the hottest must-have among the super wealthy.”
In 2023, Jay-Z and Beyoncé paid $190 million for a much larger Malibu estate designed by Ando in a deal that remains one of the most ever paid for a California home. Kim Kardashian is planning to build an extravagant Ando-designed vacation mansion near Palm Springs, and Slack co-founder Stewart Butterfield and his wife Jen Rubio bought Tom Ford’s Ando-designed ranch in New Mexico in 2021 for $40 million.
West, who remains a successful record producer and one of the best-selling musicians of all time, seems to be shifting away from real estate ownership. His other L.A. property, in Calabasas, where his now shuttered Donda Academy was located, has fallen into a state of neglect, and when he’s not out traveling the globe with his typically scantily clad wife Bianca Censori, he frequently bunks up for months at a time in some of the poshest hotels in Los Angeles, including the Chateau Marmont and the oceanfront Nobu Ryokan in Malibu.
