In the four months a year that Norwegian billionaire Torstein Hagen was spending in Los Angeles, he said he always chose to stay at a beachfront hotel.
Now, a year after an expensive divorce, Hagen is finally a homeowner in Los Angeles County, according to the real estate blog, Yolanda’s Little Black Book. The founder of Viking Cruises purchased a contemporary wood-and-glass home off-market for $11.4 million near the ocean in one of Malibu’s gated communities. The 4,600-square-foot house has four bedrooms and four bathrooms spread over two levels.
Surrounded by a few dozen other multimillion-dollar homes built at sea level, the enclave is aptly named Sea Level Drive community. It is just off Broad Beach Road in western Malibu. Sam Zell, a fellow billionaire and the founder of Chicago-based Equity Residential, lives nearby.
Hagen’s new house last sold for $6.5 million in 2012 to Tony and Joseph Antoci, owners of the Erewhon supermarket chain, who remodeled the entire place.
Sea Level Drive is not as celebrity-filled as other parts of the beachside city. In Malibu’s other enclaves, former NBA star Kevin Garnett listed his half-finished mansion for $19.9 million, and the asking price for Johnny Carson’s former estate dropped to $65 million in August.
Viking Cruises, the world’s largest river cruise operation, has its global marketing headquarters in Woodland Hills. [Yolanda] – Gregory Cornfield