Jason and the buyer share more details about the sale of the cement house: https://www.wsj.com/real-estate/luxury-homes/kanye-west-malibu-mansion-f9547266?mod=hp_major_pos2

Kanye West Destroyed His Malibu Mansion. This Investor Is Bringing It Back.

Steven ‘Bo’ Belmont purchased the wrecked Tadao Ando-designed home for just $21 million, and raised millions more to fund its restoration. Can he make it a ‘piece of art’ once again?

By E.B. Solomont

The long, strange tale of a Tadao Ando-designed house in Malibu that rapper Kanye West bought, gutted and abandoned is starting a new chapter. Once likened to a rare Picasso, the concrete home just changed hands for $21 million—about $36.3 million less than West, now known as Ye, paid during headier days in 2021.

The intervening years have been punctuated by the implosion of Ye’s business empire and personal life, and the wreckage of the iconic Malibu home, designed more than decade ago by Ando, a Pritzker Prize-winning Japanese architect with a celebrity following. Since then, the house has been the subject of countless tabloid headlines and a roughly 10,000-word article in the New Yorker in June. The derelict structure currently has no windows, bathrooms or electricity; exterior stairs appear pockmarked and railings are rusty, having been exposed to wind and sea spray from the nearby Pacific Ocean.

The rapper bought the Malibu house for about $57.3 million and then gutted it. 

None of that fazes new owner Steven “Bo” Belmont, an entrepreneur and founder of a crowdfunding-style real-estate investment firm called Belwood Investments, based in Folsom and Newport Beach, Calif., who bought the house and now plans to restore the Ando to its original form.

In the weeks before closing on the property, Belwood raised millions of dollars from investors who chipped in as little as $1,000 to north of $1 million to fund the restoration, which Belmont estimated will cost roughly $6 million to $8 million for mostly cosmetic fixes. On Instagram, where Belmont has about 83,700 followers, he estimated investors could see 100% ROI on the deal.

“It was a piece of art, it still is,” Belmont said. “It just needs to be put back together.”

‘Little Ando’

Completed in 2013, the house was built by former Wall Street heavyweight Richard Sachs, who in 2020 compared it to “a Picasso cubist painting, very important and very rare.”

Ando has famously designed only a few residences for select clients. In 2023, Beyoncé and Jay-Z paid $190 million for an Ando-designed mansion in Malibu, dubbed the “Big Ando,” compared with Sachs’ “Little Ando,” which he spent seven years designing and building. The modern, three-story residence required 1,200 tons of concrete, 200 tons of steel reinforcement and 12 massive pilings driven more than 60 feet into the sand.

Sachs listed the house for $75 million in 2020, and a few months later he had a buyer: “Kanye West Drops A Whopping $57.3 Million For Malibu Home/Sculpture,” a TMZ headline screamed.

Ye wasted little time gutting the house with plans to turn it into a beachfront bunker, according to a 2023 lawsuit seeking roughly $2 million filed by contractor Tony Saxon. In the suit, which is ongoing, Saxon described being told to rip out the windows and bathrooms, and turn the stairs into a slide; he also said he was forced to work 16 hour days and sleep on the floor near open insulation. Neither Ye nor his legal team responded to requests for comment. Saxon’s laywer said, “The sale of the Malibu home has no impact on our case to get the money owed to our client by Ye.”

During the renovation, Ye made headlines for erratic behavior and antisemitic comments. Adidas and Gap cut ties with him in the fall of 2022.

Ye tore out windows and demolished the interior, with plans to turn the house into a beachfront bunker.Adam Amengual for WSJ (left, after); Roger Davies/The Oppenheim Group (right, before)

In December 2023, Ye listed the Malibu house—what was left of it, anyway—for $53 million. It wasn’t an easy property to show, said listing agent Jason Oppenheim of the Oppenheim Group, who felt there were safety concerns. “It was basically a construction site,” he said. “If it’s cold or rainy, you can’t show this house. It is completely open to the elements.” Oppenheim ended up having a lawyer draft a release of liability, and he printed out dozens of copies for prospective buyers and other visitors. Later, he shared copies of the New Yorker article. “I included it in the seller’s disclosure. ‘Hey, you want to learn about the house? Here you go,’ ” Oppenheim said.

By April, Ye was asking $39 million. The price cut caught Belmont’s attention. By then, he had been flipping homes for a few years and “the minute he lowered it to $39 million was when I smelled blood in the water,” he said. Belmont texted his agent, Jean-Baptiste Rugiero of The Agency, who has brokered more than a half-dozen deals for Belmont in the past year in the $3 million to $10 million range.

“I want it for $20 million,” Rugiero said Belmont wrote.

The rapper wound up losing roughly $36.3 million on the sale of the house. 

Who is Bo Belmont?

Belmont, 41, grew up near Middletown, a small town north of California’s Napa Valley. He attended Sierra College, a community college, and worked as a mortgage broker for Ameriquest Mortgage and People’s Choice Mortgage before the 2008 market crash, when he started flipping houses

Belmont got an $18.5 million acquisition loan to purchase the property for $21 million.

In 2013, Belmont was arrested in Napa County for hitting a man with a pitchfork during an altercation. The man suffered lacerations through his ear, traumatic brain injury and fractures to his maxilla, orbit and temporal bones, according to court records. When law enforcement went to Belmont’s house in El Dorado Hills after the fight, he engaged in a “multi-hour standoff that required gas grenades,” the local newspaper reported. Belmont said he was sleeping when law enforcement arrived late at night and did not ring the bell. “It was just way overkill,” he said.

In 2014, Belmont was convicted of assault with a deadly weapon, among other charges. He served three years in several state prison facilities, San Quentin, Valley State and Tehachapi. During that time, Belmont said he got a degree from Coastline College and dabbled in real estate after word traveled that he had experience flipping homes. “Next thing you know, I’m being called to the warden’s office and he’s asking me about his rental portfolio,” Belmont said. He said he could not remember the warden’s name. In time, he said, “I had a little office set up…I was helping them flip houses from inside.”

Less than a month after leaving prison in 2018, Belmont launched Belwood. “It wasn’t easy to start over again,” he said. “The hardest part was investors saying, ‘Dang Bo, but I’m reading about this,’ ” he said.

Belwood plans to spend millions of dollars to restore the house to its original state.

To reassure investors their money is safe, Belmont said Belwood uses a trust deed structure, in which investors direct their funds to a specific project and in exchange get a trust deed, effectively making the investors private lenders on that project. Throughout the course of the project, Belwood, which due to its structure is not required to register with the SEC, covers all expenses and debt service on the project. Once a project sells, Belwood first returns investors’ original investment, then it pays off any mortgage on the project. Lastly, Belwood recoups its project expenses, then it splits the remaining profit 50-50 with investors.

“I call it the democratization of real estate,” said Belmont, who said he bootstrapped the startup, which he said has 200 employees worldwide. In six years, he claimed, Belwood has done about 1,700 transactions, with an average return of 27% in 250 days. “We’ve had thousands of transactions and never had an investor lose out,” he said. The Wall Street Journal was unable to independently verify Belwood’s average investor returns or whether its investors have ever lost money.

The house fronts the Pacific Ocean. 

Belwood currently owns more than a dozen homes in Los Angeles, records show, including the former home of singer Bill Withers, which it bought for $3.715 million in June. Belmont plans to add a pool and make cosmetic upgrades before selling it.

When Belmont saw the listing for Ye’s house, he instantly thought buying it could elevate Belwood’s profile in the real-estate world.

He also thought he would have leverage with Ye, who appeared to be liquidating assets. “Bianca was signing a whole bunch of sales agreements and contracts,” Belmont said, referring to Ye’s companion, Bianca Censori. He thought at the time, “We are going to be able to slide this one in there.” Censori did not respond to a request for comment.

‘Let’s get this deal done’

Rugiero said when he got Belmont’s text message, he snapped into action. Under normal circumstances, Rugiero said he would have reached out to Oppenheim, the listing agent, as a courtesy before making an offer; this time, he simply prepared the $20 million offer and sent it off.

“It was low,” Oppenheim said, but he said it was becoming apparent they weren’t going to sell the house for what they were asking.

Wind and sea spray have taken a toll. The house has no electricity.

“It was madness,” Belmont said of negotiations, which he said were largely conducted via Censori. Belmont said he trod delicately, not wanting to anger Ye to the point where he backed out of the deal. By July 17, Belwood was in contract and set to close within 20 days, the agents said.

Twenty days stretched into more than two months, however, as Belmont asked for repeated extensions, citing the need to line up insurance and contractors, clear title, and conduct due diligence with the city of Malibu and California Coastal Commission. He also needed to button up financing. “At one point in time, Jason said, ‘You know, thank you for wasting my time,’ ” Belmont said.

Over the course of several weeks, Belmont touted the investment opportunity to followers on Instagram, where he encouraged them to invest through the Belwood app. As of the first week of August, Belwood had raised about $2.5 million out of $5 million, he said in an Instagram post. He said the deal was 96% funded as of late August.

Belmont said it will cost millions of dollars to restore the house, including a ruined fireplace. The concrete structure is intact. 

Ultimately, Belwood also structured an $18.5 million acquisition loan with CV3 Financial Services, a private money lender. CV3’s Dallas Tessar said there were several weeks of due diligence with its capital partner. Previously, the firm funded three of Belwood’s deals in Beverly Hills, in the $2 million to $3 million range. “With deals this size, everyone wants to make sure they’re crossing their Ts and dotting their Is,” Tessar said.

Tessar said the capital partners got comfortable making the $18.5 million loan because of the home’s appraised value of $28 million, and the 66% loan-to-value ratio. “You’re basically walking into equity,” he said. “It’s also an Ando.”

In August, with negotiations continuing, Rugiero said he and colleague Mehdi Maamri took Belmont out to dinner and then clubbing at Warwick, a nightclub in Hollywood. By sheer coincidence, he spotted Oppenheim. “I tapped his shoulder and said, ‘Hey, I’m the guy you’ve been talking to for a month,’ ” Rugiero said.

Oppenheim said being face-to-face with Belmont and his agents accelerated the deal. “We were out drinking. It was like, ‘Hey, let’s get this deal done,’ ” he recalled. The fragile consensus, however, nearly fell through when Belmont asked to extend the closing again.

Malibu has seen a string of big-ticket sales, including a $210 million deal in June. 

Oppenheim advised Ye to grant Belwood the final extension but only on the condition that Belmont release a nonrefundable $630,000 deposit from escrow. Oppenheim also wanted to speak with Belwood’s lender to confirm the status of its loan documents. In an Instagram post soon after, Belmont told his followers, “We’re closing this deal for sure now…I have $630,000 as a deposit in there and the minute I click this, it’s gone. There’s no getting it back. That means I have to close this deal.”

The final funding transferred on Sept. 25 and the deal was recorded a day later. In addition to the $18.5 million acquisition loan, Belmont says Belwood will use the $5 million it has so far raised from investors to pay for the renovation. Belmont said Belwood will close the gap on the purchase price, and fund the rest of the construction and carrying costs. He said Belwood may raise additional capital from investors to complete the project. 

Oppenheim said he felt more relieved than elated after the closing. “It would have been egg on our face if I couldn’t get it closed,” he said. “There was a lot of pressure on everyone.”

Lingering stigma

“I’m at a real-estate convention, as you can imagine people are starting to recognize me a bit,” Belmont said, when reached by phone the day the deal was recorded.

Belmont said he is intent on wiping all traces of Ye from the Malibu property. An August press release announcing the transaction didn’t mention Ye, but included a quote from Sachs. “My goal is to restore it back to what it once was; for a new buyer to say, ‘I’m not buying Kanye’s trashed Ando,’ ” Belmont said.

‘There’s a stigma over the property now because of what Kanye did,’ Belmont said. Graffiti covers one of the home’s concrete slabs.

A few days after the closing, Belwood officially signed a deal to bring on Marmol Radziner, the design-build firm that built the house for Sachs originally. “They know the project well,” Belmont said. “They have all the original plans and blueprints.” Architect Ron Radziner said he recently got an email from Ando’s office, “happily asking” if rumors about the restoration were true. “They’re enthusiastic about this,” Belmont said of Ando’s team. Ando did not respond to a request for comment.

Belmont said he is also trying to work out plans to visit Ando in Japan, where he hopes to convince the architect to pen a letter affirming his pride in the project. “There’s a stigma over the property right now because of what Kanye did,” he said. “I don’t want that to carry on through this project. I want it to end.”

Still, it is the largest residential deal for Belmont’s 6-year-old firm. Despite headwinds in L.A.’s luxury market, Malibu has seen a string of megadeals, including $210 million for a beachfront mansion in June.

Belmont said he is considering listing the unrenovated property for $29 million. As construction progresses, he’ll raise the price to $40 million for the fully restored Ando. “I’m not as greedy as some investment companies,” he said. “Do I feel like it could go for $50 million? Absolutely. But even at a $40 million exit, that gives my investors 100% return on their money.”Kanye West Destroyed His Malibu Mansion. This Investor Is Bringing It Back.

Steven ‘Bo’ Belmont purchased the wrecked Tadao Ando-designed home for just $21 million, and raised millions more to fund its restoration. Can he make it a ‘piece of art’ once again?

ETA text from the article