The extremely publicized deal made between two builders for the buy of a Malibu seashore home 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 placing the Tadao Ando-designed seashore home back on the market with an asking price of $39 million, months after shopping for 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 promote 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 itemizing standing remained pending for weeks—before the property was all of the sudden put back on the market earlier this month, with a diminished asking price of $34.9 million, as first reported by Realtor.com®.
Stephen “Bo” Belmont had agreed to promote Kanye West’s former Malibu seashore home to developer Andrew Mazzella for between $30 million and $34 million until their deal fell through.
Belmont purchased the property from West for the considerably diminished price of $21 million in 2024—after the rapper fully gutted the Tadao Ando-designed dwelling.
Now, Belmont and Mazzella have shed some gentle on the breakdown of their deal, with each alleging that they were led astray by the other social gathering on varied features of the sale.
Speaking to the Journal, Belmont claimed that Mazzella was “massively underqualified” to take half in a real estate deal of this magnitude, telling the outlet that the potential purchaser was unable to secure the obligatory funding to buy the property for the agreed-upon price.
Describing Mazzella as a “Montana cowboy” who was merely “trying to do something in Malibu,” Belmont said that he was pushed to cancel their contract after the purchaser 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 rapidly rejected it.
“I was born at night, but not last night,” he scoffed, conceding that he wished he had executed more analysis about Mazzella before agreeing to a deal: “Shame on me for not doing due diligence.”
Meanwhile, Mazzella said that he also supplied to pay Belmont $27.5 million in money, which was also turned down—despite insisting that he was not given the full particulars about the work needed to restore the property to a livable situation when he agreed to buy it in the first place.
Mazzella claims that he believed Belmont was going to proceed his restoration of the property while their deal was finalized, only to uncover 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—prices that only came to gentle after what he said was a “slow trickle of information” from the vendor in the months after the deal was made.
After Belmont purchased the property, he vowed to restore it to its unique glory.
However, just months after he started his restoration, Belmont put the home back on the market for $39 million.
Despite agreeing to promote the home to Mazzella, Belmont has now put the property back on the market—claiming that the potential purchaser was unable to secure financing for the buy.
He further alleged that Belmont’s company, Belwood, has failed to share the full particulars about the 500 or so events concerned in the unique investment in the seashore home—which has turned lenders off to giving him money to finance his buy.
Yet Mazzella insists that he is still actively working to close the deal, stating that desires to attain an settlement that will fulfill both events, despite Belmont placing the dwelling back on the market.
“If Andrew can come up with financing and close the deal, great,” itemizing agent Jason Oppenheim instructed the outlet of the determination to relist. “In the meantime, we’re going to pursue other opportunities.”
The newest twist in the saga surrounding the decimated home comes more than 4 years after it was first bought by West, who paid a staggering $57.3 million for the property in 2021, months after he cut up from his former spouse, Kim Kardashian.
He then proceeded to intestine the architectural gem, with reports at the time suggesting that he wished to flip the concrete construction into a modernist bomb shelter.
He then sparked further fury when he deserted 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 naked bones of the home.
When it was put on the market, the home had no electric, no plumbing, no home windows, and no inside finishes, all of which had been stripped out during West’s “renovations.”
So it came as no shock that West was unable to secure anything close to his unique asking price, finally accepting an offer of just $21 million from Belmont, who bought the property in September 2024 and vowed to restore it to its unique glory.
Meanwhile Mazzella alleges that he was not given the full image when agreeing to the buy, claiming that the restoration was going to require “hundreds of thousands, maybe millions” more than he’d first thought.
Regardless, Mazzella has said he is still working to come to an settlement with Belmont.
In the meantime, the property has been relisted for a diminished asking price of $34.9 million.
When he purchased the home, Belmont announced in a press release that he deliberate to spend $5 million bringing Ando’s work back to life. The buy of the property supplied “an opportunity to revitalize and preserve an architectural gem … ensuring it remains a jewel of Malibu,” he famous.
Yet Belmont then threw his own West-style curveball, selecting 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 situation.
It is presently unclear what state the property is in—or how far the restoration has progressed—because the itemizing pictures used were taken before West gutted it.
However, Belmont has beforehand acknowledged that, despite leaving the project unfinished, he and his group had made some vital headway on restoring the home, putting in new plumbing and electric, redoing the roof, and finishing all framing.
He also ordered glass for the home windows from Germany and said it would arrive before the finish of the summer time, noting that he deliberate to go the supplies to Mazzella as half of the buy.
Meanwhile, Mazzella vowed that he would proceed the reconstruction, admitting that he hoped a restoration of the dwelling would help him to make a title for himself in Los Angeles.
“California and L.A., particularly Malibu, is the highest stage there is and I’ve always wished to get to the highest stage,” the former fisherman initially instructed the Journal. “This is me kicking down the door.”
But he said the buy of the home was far from just a business endeavor, explaining that he had been “fascinated with architecture” since his teenage years, including Ando’s work, so much so that he said he wished to transfer to Malibu for a massive half of the 12 months to oversee work on the home.
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