Rapacious real estate interests have descended on the miles of Malibu beachfront devastated in the January L.A. wildfires, selectively acquiring properties for ambitious luxury residential development projects. 

This is also happening in the two other communities ravaged by the fires: the more modest Altadena and the pricier Pacific Palisades. Respectfully, though, neither has the international investor interest and millionaire moxie of Malibu’s beach, varying in clusters totaling a certified 340 properties, ranging in prices up to $100 million.

Among those identified assembling parcels on what they are obviously anticipating will be buildable sites are arguably the two wealthiest men in New Zealand, brothers Nick and Mar Mowbray. Their fortune is estimated at $2 billion and is primarily based on producing plastic toys in a factory they own in China. 

Confirmed in recent California real estate filings accessed by Malibu resident Jennifer Van Lear, the brothers, acting through their parent corporation, paid $65 million for nine properties and, according to a realtor newsletter and local public radio station KBUU, are acquiring at least four more for their factory-built homes. 

Nick Mowbray reportedly disclosed in public remarks in New Zealand that their Malibu development will be innovative and of world significance: AI-planned and -programmed in Milan for robotic assemblage at their Zuru Tech factory in China, packaged for the public by a customer relations firm in Kolkata, India, to be shipped to the U.S. and sited on platforms above the Malibu sand. 

The initial land purchases appear to be in the less-exclusive but still-expensive section of the beach known as La Costa, where mostly dingbat housing, now ash, edged the Pacific Coast Highway and extended out over the sand. Before the fire, the modest structures sold for up to $10 million, location being the prime value.

Further west is the section randomly ravaged in the fires known as “Billionaire Beach,” with properties selling from $10 million up to $100 million, in a focused, competitive real estate market considered a blood sport by locals.

As for rentals, one of tech billionaire Larry Ellison’s surviving dozen properties was listed at $65,000 a month. (It could not be confirmed that this is where Elon Musk reportedly couch surfed this summer.) Not incidentally, Ellison’s holdings were saved thanks to a privately contracted fire brigade, as were the homes of several A-list celebrities, which now stand exposed next to ruins. 

Malibu has known such scams in the past in the buying and selling of property, the city’s prime economic activity. 

The ambitious plan featuring prefab concrete housing seems, if not fanciful to those involved in the local rebuild effort, certainly questionable. Some consider it just another get-rich real estate scam to draw in the greedy gullible, where the original investors will sell at a nice profit and return beneath their rock down under. To be sure, Malibu has known such scams in the past in the buying and selling of property, the city’s prime economic activity. 

Locally, however, there is some sympathy for the La Costa owners who sold out to the Mowbray brothers. Noting that the cost of rebuilding is expected to be “astronomical,“ Mark Olsen commented on the popular Facebook group Friends of Malibu, “Selling to a foreign investor isn’t a bad move and I can’t fault them one bit. Take the money from someone that had no idea the challenges and run.” 

If the plan indeed is pursued as indicated with deep-pocketed support, it will surely test the city’s complex building codes, taxing inspectors and discomfited local leadership over the still-to-be-resolved questions and costs of a comprehensive septic system to avoid polluting the beach and surf, as the patchwork systems now do. Early discussions have been tortuous.

While addressing climate change is a state mandate still to be challenged, whatever is built on the beachfront must be 20 feet above sea level, presumably on stilts, and public coastal access must be expanded. In addition, there are stringent calls from the city’s residents for a building moratorium on all development other than those of the actual burnout victims. And some want no development at all and for the beach to be reclaimed by the state and turned into an inviting sandy public park, a spectacular pristine setting.

As it is, manufactured homes in California do not have to meet local zoning codes, are exempt from local building rules and inspections, and are regulated by the state, which has to approve construction plans. 

There has been no comment yet from City Hall, though longtime local influencer Mari Stanley observed that, for the moment, the Mowbray brothers “might be ‘land banking’ more than seeking to build, to flip to prospective buyers.”

If so, they are sure to be embraced by the local realtors, who see the potential in the near future of a half-billion dollars in subsequent sales and allied millions in commissions. As for the AI-designed, China- and robot-assembled prefab housing, maybe it will appear in the distant future. Maybe…

Featured image via Wikimedia Commons.