The crowdfunding entrepreneur who snapped up Kanye West’s abandoned beachfront bunker has put it back on the market.
West’s former Malibu retreat, designed by renowned Japanese architect Tadao Ando, made headlines after the controversial rapper left it gutted and vacant.
The architectural gem was a literal shell of its former self when Belwood Investments snapped it up last August for under $22 million — amounting to a loss of more than $36 million for West. Now, mid-renovation, Belwood’s CEO Bo Belmont wants to sell, the Wall Street Journal reported.
West, who had his legal name changed to “Ye,” bought the property in 2021 for $57.25 million from the financier and art collector Richard Sachs, for whom the home was built in 2013. Kanye told a laborer that he planned to make the home his “bomb shelter,” or “bat cave,” the New Yorker reported.
West’s teardown job occurred around the same time that his erratic behavior and antisemitic outbursts made increasingly frequent headlines, and got him cut off from lucrative deals with Gap and Adidas.
The home, built in 2013, spans 4,000 square feet, with four bedrooms and five bathrooms. The concrete, box-like structure stands on 12 caissons submerged 60 feet into the bedrock of the coast. Its former ocean views turned into ocean exposures after Ye stripped the home of its windows, marble bathrooms and electricity.
West listed the hollowed-out home for $53 million in December 2023. The price plummeted to $39 million before Belmont scooped it.
Restoration of the rare Ando home is in full swing, the Journal reported. Framing, plumbing, roofing and electrical work have all been undertaken by Belmont, with the guidance of architecture firm Marmol Radziner. New windows are still in route, however. Belmont told the Journal that renovation costs will likely add up to $8.5 million.
But windows or no, Belmont is looking for an exit. The Journal reported this week on the CEO’s plans to relist the home for $39 million, as is.
Belmont told the Journal that selling now is a way to recoup his investors — whose crowdfunded contributions range from $1,000 to $1 million — as soon as possible. Belmont said carrying the property currently costs him about $1 million a month.
The home miraculously survived the massive wildfires that scorched entire neighborhoods across Los Angeles in January. Belmont told the Journal that the fires may even increase the home’s value, due to the destruction of so much inventory along the Pacific Coast Highway.
If no one bites, Belmont plans to try again once the restoration is closer to completion in early 2026 — with a much higher price, of course, in the range of $55 to $65 million.
The Pritzker Prize-winning Ando’s residential designs are rare and iconic, and they always go from millions, from a Lenox Hill penthouse to Beyonce and Jay-Z’s record-setting Malibu mansion. His work has been panned for being parking garage-esque, but others praise his modernist creations as sculptural works of art, including Belmont.
The Oppenheim Group, which represented West in his 2024 sale, holds the new listing.