Failed Deal for Kanye West's $35 Million Gutted Malibu Beach House Descends Into a Bitter Battle Between Developers

Yahoo

10 hours ago

The highly publicized deal made between two developers for the purchase of a Malibu beach house that was famously gutted by rapper Kanye West has turned into a nasty spat after the sale of the home broke down mere months after it was announced.
In March, Steven "Bo" Belmont, the CEO of "real estate crowdfunding firm" Belwood Investments, announced that he was putting the Tadao Ando-designed beach house back on the market with an asking price of $39 million, months after buying it from West for $21 million.
Days later, he revealed that he had struck a deal with Montana-based developer Andrew Mazzella, telling The Wall Street Journal that he'd agreed to sell the home for somewhere between $30 million and $34 million.
At the time, both Mazzella and Belmont confirmed that they expected the deal to close by early May.
Yet the home's listing status remained pending for weeks—before the property was suddenly put back on the market earlier this month, with a reduced asking price of $34.9 million, as first reported by Realtor.com®.
Now, Belmont and Mazzella have shed some light on the breakdown of their deal, with each alleging that they were led astray by the other party on various aspects of the sale.
Speaking to the Journal, Belmont claimed that Mazzella was "massively underqualified" to take part in a real estate deal of this magnitude, telling the outlet that the prospective buyer was unable to secure the necessary funding to buy the property for the agreed-upon price.
Describing Mazzella as a "Montana cowboy" who was simply "trying to do something in Malibu," Belmont said that he was pushed to cancel their contract after the buyer failed to come up with the money.
According to Belmont, Mazzella made a new offer of $19.5 million after struggling to secure financing—noting that he quickly rejected it.
"I was born at night, but not last night," he scoffed, conceding that he wished he had done more research about Mazzella before agreeing to a deal: "Shame on me for not doing due diligence."
Meanwhile, Mazzella said that he also offered to pay Belmont $27.5 million in cash, which was also turned down—despite insisting that he was not given the full details about the work needed to restore the property to a livable condition when he agreed to buy it in the first place.
Mazzella claims that he believed Belmont was going to continue his restoration of the property while their deal was finalized, only to discover that work ceased back in April.
According to the Montana-based developer, the project was going to require "hundreds of thousands, maybe millions" more than he had first thought—costs that only came to light after what he said was a "slow trickle of information" from the seller in the months after the deal was made.
He further alleged that Belmont's company, Belwood, has failed to share the full details about the 500 or so parties involved in the original investment in the beach house—which has turned lenders off to giving him money to finance his purchase.
Yet Mazzella insists that he is still actively working to close the deal, stating that wants to reach an agreement that will satisfy both parties, despite Belmont putting the dwelling back on the market.
"If Andrew can come up with financing and close the deal, great," listing agent Jason Oppenheim told the outlet of the decision to relist. "In the meantime, we're going to pursue other opportunities."
The latest twist in the saga surrounding the decimated home comes more than four years after it was first purchased by West, who paid a staggering $57.3 million for the property in 2021, months after he split from his former wife, Kim Kardashian.
He then proceeded to gut the architectural gem, with reports at the time suggesting that he wanted to turn the concrete structure into a modernist bomb shelter.
He then sparked further fury when he abandoned his plans for the waterfront abode altogether and put it back on the market in January 2024 with an asking price of $53 million, enlisting Oppenheim to help him offload the bare bones of the home.
When it was put on the market, the home had no electric, no plumbing, no windows, and no interior finishes, all of which had been stripped out during West's "renovations."
So it came as no surprise that West was unable to secure anything close to his original asking price, ultimately accepting an offer of just $21 million from Belmont, who purchased the property in September 2024 and vowed to restore it to its original glory.
When he bought the home, Belmont announced in a press release that he planned to spend $5 million bringing Ando's work back to life. The purchase of the property provided "an opportunity to revitalize and preserve an architectural gem ... ensuring it remains a jewel of Malibu," he noted.
Yet Belmont then threw his own West-style curveball, choosing to relist the home with an asking price of $39 million, despite noting in the description that the property was far from being in a livable condition.
It is currently unclear what state the property is in—or how far the restoration has progressed—because the listing photos used were taken before West gutted it.
However, Belmont has previously stated that, despite leaving the project unfinished, he and his team had made some significant headway on restoring the home, installing new plumbing and electric, redoing the roof, and completing all framing.
He also ordered glass for the windows from Germany and said it would arrive before the end of the summer, noting that he planned to pass the materials to Mazzella as part of the purchase.
Meanwhile, Mazzella vowed that he would continue the reconstruction, admitting that he hoped a restoration of the dwelling would help him to make a name for himself in Los Angeles.
"California and L.A., specifically Malibu, is the highest level there is and I've always wanted to get to the highest level," the former fisherman initially told the Journal. "This is me kicking down the door."
But he said the purchase of the home was far from just a commercial endeavor, explaining that he had been "fascinated with architecture" since his teenage years, including Ando's work, so much so that he said he wanted to move to Malibu for a large part of the year to oversee work on the home.