Exclusive | Kanye West arrived unannounced at a $295M Malibu listing, set up an office and crashed there for 4 days: Citizen Kim
Imagine a concrete compound sitting high on a grassy bluff overlooking the Pacific Ocean in Malibu’s prized Paradise Cove — one designed by a Pritzker Prize-winning architect.In reality, it exists — and was quietly on the market as a whisper listing for a colossal $295 million when Kanye West drove up to the estate, unannounced, one day.It had taken 15 years for art collectors Maria and Bill Bell — a soap opera heir whose parents, William J.Bell and Lee Phillip Bell, created “The Young and the Restless” and “The Bold and the Beautiful” — to build the estate.
They had commissioned the Japanese starchitect Tadao Ando for its design, and it was one of only a handful of the now 85-year-old’s residential homes in the US.And, apparently, West wanted to give it a whirl.Celebrity broker Kurt Rappaport was representing the Bells.But instead of calling Rappaport, West simply drove to the estate to see it for himself.
According to Jonathan Van Meter’s new book, “Citizen Kim,” the buzzy biography of West’s ex-wife, Kim Kardashian, West — now known simply as Ye — “just pulled up to the gate, rang the buzzer, and said ‘Hi, it’s Kanye.’”“And when the owner hesitated, Kanye said, ‘If Elvis Presley came to your door and rang your buzzer, would you let him in? This is that.’”But this wasn’t your average unexpected house tour.According to Van Meter, “Kanye stayed for four days.
He set up his ‘office’ by the pool and took meetings because he wanted to feel the vibe of working in an Ando.”Van Meter declines to say what year West saw the 42,000-square-foot white concrete compound.According to the Wall Street Journal, it happened in 2022. The previous year, in September 2021 — more than six months after Kardashian had filed for divorce — West paid $57.25 million to buy a different Tadao Ando designed beach house 4 miles west, on Malibu Road.
That 4,000-square-foot grey concrete home had been commissioned by money man...