What do the LA Rams General Manager, a Walmart heir and the Grateful Dead’s drummer all have in common? They all invested multiple millions in buying a Malibu home or property right before or after the Woolsey Fire destroyed 10 percent of the town on Nov. 9.
LA Rams General Manager Samuel Lester “Les” Snead, 48, recently bought a newly remodeled 1962 home in the Malibu West neighborhood for $2.45 million. In Snead’s GM position, which he’s held since 2012, he apparently reports directly to Rams team owner Stan Kroenke, who is married to a Walmart heiress and also lives in Malibu. Snead and his family evacuated during the fires, according to the LA Times.
Les Snead’s agent was Malibu Realtor Chris Cortazzo of Coldwell Banker. The listing agent was Robert Mahterian of HomeSmart Evergreen Realty.
Just last week, real estate blogs reported that Walmart heir Steuart Walton paid $14 million cash for a 1958 tri-level estate property on Point Dume. His new house in the trees, on a walled and gated property, was formerly owned by Cindy Crawford and Rande Gerber, who purchased the house for $6 million in 2014, completely renovated it, and sold it one year later for $13.3 to a Silicon Valley couple. After three years, that couple decided to sell the property in order to buy an even larger home on Point Dume.
Walton, in his late 30s and single, is the founder and chairman of RZC Investments, a founder of Game Composites, Ltd., is involved in a number of other businesses and serves on a number of boards, including Walmart’s. He’s also an attorney with a law degree from Georgetown.
The listing agent for Walton’s new digs was Chris Cortazzo of Coldwell Banker, while Walton’s agent was Matt Rapf of Pritchett-Rapf & Associates.
During the last week of December, real estate blogs reported that Palo Alto native Bill Kreutzmann, who co-founded the Grateful Dead and served as their drummer for 30 years until they disbanded, bought a Point Dume estate right next to a Woolsey Fire burn property. He paid $4.9 million for the 1973 Spanish-style estate with an ocean view, according to the LA Times. The house last sold in 2015 for $3.1 million and had been remodeled. Kreutzmann and his fifth wife most recently lived in Hawaii.
The listing agents for the property were Mark Gruskin and Ignacio Rodriguez Diaz of Westside Estate Agency; and Bill Kreutzmann’s agent was Lily Harfouche of Coldwell Banker.
A week before the fire, it was reported on a blog that a private compound on the sandiest part of Malibu Road, which had been on and off the market for years, had sold for a discounted $17.5 million. Though the property was technically acquired by an LLC, the buyers are a couple from New York named Edward and Julie Minskoff. Minskoff, with a personal net worth estimated at $620 million, is one of New York’s wealthiest real estate developers. The property they just acquired happens to be right next to the luxury Malibu Road compound they bought eight years ago for $30 million, meaning they’ve now dropped a total of $47.5 million on Malibu property.
In October, recently divorced billionaire businessman Torstein Hagen, 75, the founder and CEO of Viking Cruises, the world’s largest river cruise operation, is said to have paid $11.4 million for a two-level ocean-front home on Sea Level Drive near Broad Beach.
A real estate blog reported the deal was totally off-market, with the sale reportedly being made by an unnamed offshore corporation. Those familiar with the property say it last sold in 2012 for $6.5 million to Tony and Josephine Antoci, owners of the Erewhon grocery stores. Once the house was completely remodeled, the Antocis sold it to Hagen and bought another Malibu home.
To read more about real estate dealings in Malibu, check out the Malibu Real Estate Report.
