Kanye West seems anxious to be rid of his Malibu mansion, a house that’s now the most minimal of all minimalist properties. According to the Wall Street Journal, the rapper, producer, and designer has put the beachfront home, designed by contemporary minimalist architect Tadao Ando, on the market at a loss. In an off-market deal in 2021, Kim Kardashian’s ex-husband paid Richard Sachs (Ashley Olsen’s ex) $57 million for the roughly 4,000-square-foot mansion, but is offering it for only $53 million, clearly accepting that the investment is a loss for him. West gutted the entire place, but never wrapped up renovations on the home, which is missing all of its doors, windows plumbing, electrical, HVAC, and interior finishes.
“It will take several million dollars for the house to be finished,” listing holder, celebrity agent Jason Oppenheim of Netflix’s Selling Sunset told the Journal.
Despite its designer pedigree (and the fact that Tadao Ando’s properties are in hot demand—Jay-Z and Beyonce bought a $200 million house he designed), the Chicago-born father of four has good reason to want to get rid of the home at any cost. West and the property are now entangled in the courts, as a former project manager opened a lawsuit against him in September, citing the 16-hour days he says he was forced to work while overseeing the renovations and the open insulation he was made to sleep next to as the home’s caretaker. The contractor also claims he was fired after he declined, at West’s request, to replace the home’s electrical system with one he deemed unsafe. West has denied the claims.
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Built in 2013, the home is finished in Ando’s signature concrete and required 1,200 tons of the building material, 200 tons of steel, and 12 pylons anchored more than 60 feet deep to complete. The three-story concrete frame is complemented by 1,500 square feet of deck space and stairs that lead straight to the beach. Wide, straight-angled doorways and windows face the ocean where the home’s four bedrooms used to be. Oppenheim described the house as a blank canvas and said that the house’s architectural integrity and value are still there.
West has had a rough year as his antisemitic rhetoric has gotten him dropped from his lucrative design contract with Adidas and Gap. The musician plans on releasing new music this month.