Music/film mogul and Cher ex David Geffen fought jealously for years to keep people away from his massive spread along Carbon Beach in Malibu and now he's just going to give the thing away to any loser with $100 million. Variety reports that "one of L.A.'s most prominent property brokers has quietly told a number of Platinum Triangle real estate power players that he's able to discreetly show" the gray-shingled compound "to pre-screened clients." Geffen has always hated the idea of the unwashed masses tramping around his property—a part of all beaches in California are legally required to be open to the public, but Geffen has worked very hard over the decades to prevent public access by his house and the fight has ended up making this a pretty infamous spread.
In 1983, Geffen agreed to allow a pathway from Pacific Coast Highway down to the public part of the beach in front of his compound, in exchange for putting in a swimming pool and making other additions. But in 2002, he filed a lawsuit to keep people away from that access point and at some point he also built four fake garage doors along Pacific Coast Highway, removing the curb in the process, to keep people from parking on the public road in front of his house. After years of these kind of tricks both practical and legal, he finally agreed to open up a bit of the public beach in 2007, getting a "privacy buffer" in return.
But now Geffen is apparently spending more time on the East Coast, in enormous spreads in the Hamptons and Manhattan, and on his gigantic yachts (plural!), so he's finally ready to part with the Carbon Beach complex he's owned in part since the mid-1970s and in full since 1999. The property is composed of five parcels combined into two, which are "fearsomely fortified and always guarded," according to Variety. There are a number of buildings, one of which reportedly holds a screening room, plus that swimming pool and spa, lawns, and nine garage doors (so probably five real ones).
Geffen supposedly wants $100 million for the whole thing. He also owns a house just down the beach, which he bought for the second in time in 2008, for $9.8 million. His main LA house is the fabulous Jack Warner estate in Beverly Hills, which he's owned since 1990.
· Your Mama Hears: David Geffen Quietly Shops Malibu Compound [Variety]
· The Real Estate Hijinks and Highlights of LA's 5 Richest People [Curbed LA]
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