Malibu’s Two Tadao Ando Homes: Kanye West’s $295 Million Estate Visit

Malibu’s two Tadao Ando-designed homes drew Kanye West’s attention, but their market paths diverged sharply. The 42,000-square-foot Paradise Cove estate, known as the “Big Ando,” was quietly offered for $295 million (AUD $420 million) when West arrived without an appointment. He later bought the smaller Ando home nearby for $57.25 million.

Kim Kardashian and Kanye West… His bizarre behaviour is detailed in Kardashian’s new biography. Picture: Allen Berezovsky/Getty Images

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A four-day stay at Paradise Cove

Art collectors Maria and Bill Bell spent 15 years building the concrete compound on a grassy bluff above the Pacific. Bill Bell is the heir to the television soap opera dynasty created by his parents, William J. Bell and Lee Phillip Bell. The couple commissioned Ando, the Japanese architect, for one of his relatively few US residential projects.

Celebrity broker Kurt Rappaport represented the owners. According to Jonathan Van Meter’s biography of Kim Kardashian, Citizen Kim, West bypassed the broker and showed up at the gate, introducing himself as Kanye. When the owner hesitated, West reportedly asked whether they would admit Elvis Presley if he rang the buzzer, adding, “This is that.”

The home was on the market when Kanye simply showed up at the front gate. Picture: Google Maps

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Van Meter says West stayed four days, establishing an office by the pool and taking meetings to experience what it was like to work in an Ando-designed house. The book doesn’t identify the year; the Wall Street Journal reported the visit took place in 2022.

The Bells’ asking price set the scale of the property’s position in Malibu’s ultra-prime market. In 2023, Jay-Z and Beyoncé bought the estate for $200 million (AUD $284 million), then a record for a California home.

The smaller Ando and its costly reinvention

West had already purchased another Ando-designed beachfront home in September 2021, paying $57.25 million (AUD $81.45 million). The 4,000-square-foot grey concrete house sits on Malibu Road, four miles west of the Bells’ estate. Money manager Richard Sachs commissioned it, and construction took seven years before completion in 2013.

Ron Radziner, the project’s executive architect, told The New Yorker the larger Paradise Cove residence was called “the Big Ando” and West’s house “the Little Ando.” The names capture the contrast in scale, though both properties shared the same architect and a stark concrete design.

West, 48, purchased the Tadao Ando-designed beach dwelling for the staggering price of $US57.3 million in September 2021. Picture: Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images

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West’s ownership brought a radical alteration to the smaller home. He hired contractor Tony Saxon to strip the interiors, aiming to remake the property as a minimalist shelter he described as a “bat cave.” The work removed electricity and plumbing, marble bathrooms, windows, a firepit, a concrete hot tub and an indoor fireplace, leaving the structure exposed to the elements.

The project led to a dispute in court. Saxon sued West for $1.7 million; a Los Angeles jury awarded him $140,000 (AUD $200,000) in March, reportedly for lost wages and medical expenses.

Resale, foreclosure and an uncertain future

West listed the gutted house for $53 million in December 2023. It sold the following year for $21 million (AUD $30 million) to a crowdfunded real estate firm led by Steven “Bo” Belmont. Individual investors contributed amounts ranging from $1,000 to $1 million (AUD $1,422 to $1.42 million). The firm later asked $39 million (AUD $55.5 million) when it relisted the property in 2025.

The property faced foreclosure later that year. At least two auction dates were set and postponed in 2026, leaving its ownership and next steps unsettled. During that period, Ryan Keeley began using the damaged oceanfront house as an art studio.

The two Ando homes now stand as contrasting Malibu market stories: the larger estate achieved a record-setting sale, while West’s former home remains caught between a troubled resale and an unresolved future.