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BUYER: David GeffenSELLER: Peter Morton
LOCATION: Pacific Coast Highway
PRICE: $9,800,000
SIZE: 1,473 square feet, 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms
YOUR MAMAS NOTES: Your Mama is a little late to the rodeo on this one, but since it involves a couple of big name property mavens in Malee-boo with biggest of bucks to trade properties as freely and easily as a couple of cock-eyed queens trading shade in a busted up bar in Birmingham, we figured we'd weigh in with some sass and salt.
The players are billionaire media mogul David Geffen and Hard Rock Café co-founder Peter Morton. Both gentleman currently own and occupy large Carbon Beach compounds comprised of multiple lots–two lots for Morton and four big ones for Geffen. Both also own several other properties in and around Malee-boo not to mention they live just a few hundred feet from each other as the crow flies...big bad Geffen in Bev Hills and Mister Morton in the Holmby Hills.
Anyhoo, back in March 1996 Mister Geffen bought an itty bitty 1,473 square foot oceanfront house with 45 feet fronting Carbon Beach for $1,230,000. He sold the two bedroom house in July of 1998 for an undisclosed price to a man named Richard Lovett, who happens to be the president of the ubiquitous and powerful artist management company Creative Artists Agency.
Time warp to February of 2007 when Mister Morton purchased the above mentioned property for a $10,500,000. Presumably Mister Morton leased the place out or maybe his son Harry, famous for founding the LA based Pink Taco restaurant chain and dating a pre-rehabbed Lindsay Lohan, shacked up there over the summer of 2007. Who knows? Who cares.
What is important here is that in early 2008 Mister Geffen agreed to purchase the teeny tiny two bedroom house for $9,800,000, which our bejeweled abacus tells us is $700,000 less than Mister Morton paid for the property just one year ago.
Your Mama is hard pressed to believe the house has lost $700,000 in value in the last year particularly given that the Malee-boo market hasn't exactly gone cold or stale in the midst of the mortgage meltdown sweeping other less desirable locales. So, our little pea brain says there might be more than meets our myopic eyeballs. It couldn't be that Mister Morton was just feeling charitable and decided to give the billionaire a big break, could it? Maybe Mister Morton is looking to show a large loss on his taxes? Could this parcel be part of some larger transaction between Mister Geffen and Mister Morton? Will Mister Geffen go on a buying spree in order to give Oracle founder and may-jor Malee-boo land owner Larry Ellison a run for his real estate money?
Anyone? Bueller? Bueller?
The house is reportedly leased and Your Mama checked with a few of our better connected sources along the Pacific Coast Highway and from what we hear, the tenant is not, unfortunately for the celeb obsessed children, famous.
30 comments:
I guess all I can say is, "Good on him"?
The discounted price is interesting. I agree that Malibu RE isn't coming undone, so perhaps they have their own business reasons for the price break.
Oh my goodness, such a perplexing scenario of speculattive theory. I'd love to be sitting on this deck with no particular objective beyond taking in the unescapible pounding surf and heaven-on-earth Malibu ocean air.
Mama, whenever you've used the term "anyone?" my first and only thought: Is Our Mama secretly echoing the priceless Ben Stein line? Just now, when you added "Bueller? Bueller?" I did a happy dance in my mind! You're the best.
Reminds me of when my boss and I were on a trip to Virginia and decided to visit the Pope-Leighy House by Frank Lloyd Wright.
After trekking through the woods to the site it had recently been relocated to, my boss turned to me and exclaimed, "It's a shack! A fucking shack!"
'Nuff said.
Is there a better example of "location, location, location" when looking at price and product?
Welcome back, lgb.
"After trekking through the woods to the site it had recently been relocated to, my boss turned to me and exclaimed, "It's a shack! A fucking shack!""
Love that story, LGB. Keep 'em coming!
great to see you lgb!
Is Carbon Beach surfable?
Glad to be back - missed you all.
I think we've all agreed in past posts that, yes, Malibu is indeed a unique location. However, it is not the only stunning beach close to a major metro area and, as such, deserves to have a well-jaundiced eye cast upon it . . .
i.e., it's still a fucking shack.
Location bla bla. This price psf is even higher then trophy properties at 15 cpw. Insane beyond words. It's a hut and not even a nice one.
holy freaking hell!
$10 MILLION for THAT house is completely ridiculous! it`s almost unfathomable. surely to God someone could find a better deal in Malibu. and who the hell wants to live with the highway in their backyard...
i could have sword geffen put 4 properties together, not 3.
yer right baby, it's four.
With Malibu's property values escalating so erratically, I guessed this price was based mainly on land. Sooo not true. There are very nice beach houses worth getting excited about--in this ballpark range, on the better beaches.
carbon is not surfable unless your a beginner
If you know David - he is truly - "The art of the deal" - David is truly a visonairy. I can just imagine his MALIBU compound if and when he connects all the lots - MAMA would have a very fun filled day.
If you know David - he is truly - "The art of the deal" - David is truly a visonairy. I can just imagine his MALIBU compound if and when he connects all the lots - MAMA would have a very fun filled day.
There are 5 other houses between his current 4-lot compound and this house so that would be a heck of an undertaking, even for David Geffen.
I'm guessing guest quarters, "home" office, discreet place to keep the boyfriend....
anon 10.17
Those 5 properties measure 14.928 square feet. If he would pay 7000 dollar psf the total would be 104.496.000 dollars. His net worth is 6 billion. He sold a painting by
Jackson Pollock for 140 million dollar last November so 100 million dollar for some properties is lunch money. There is no price for such a piece a living art.
Which is Keanu Reeves window?
jl13, That assumes all 5 owners would even want to sell.
Mama where are you this morning?
Ted - is that you...LOL
I don't think Malibu is totally immune from price pressure. A $700,000 drop on a 9.8 mil house is a very small drop, though. As a person who bought a house in Hidden Hills a year ago, I can tell you that if I had to sell now I would lose almost all of my 20% downpayment, and all of my $200,000 remodeling investment. Now, perhaps in the upper stratosphere of 8-9 million, there is not as much pressure, but I can tell you the 2-5 million range is facing extreme pressure in desireable areas. The only houses that are moving here in HH are the ones that are discounted significantly.
Geffen never dated Keanu. He dated a guy who looked like Keanu for a brief time years ago.
Malibu is getting hit too, dummies. and the fun has just begun!
Good luck in the downturn!
The purchase was ransom.. The coastal commission gets the land as open space in exchange for a retaining wall Geffen wants to build on his existing property.
Do the children want tollhouse cookies or rice krispy treats if you all behave and don't poke that troll with a stick? Let it lie there like a hound in the Texas sun.
5:31...
Okay, that makes sense. Not saying it's right, because for me it's not. The Coastal Commission and locals can't be happy about it. Geffen's been in court forever trying to privatize his beach. His plan B was/is getting approval for a new retaining wall to be built closer to high tide; keeping the public further away. The CC knows retaining walls can be detrimental to the natural coastline. We talked about it on the Riordan-Daly post. She bought/donated a lot further down the beach for open space/public access in exchange for approval to string her three properties together--getting around the CC’s seawall concerns and open space regulations so she could move ahead with her construction plans.
Might this land become an access point? Oh my goodness.
calidris melanatros is a bore!
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