Media mogul pays $100M for Malibu mansion

A self-storage billionaire has sold her cliffside estate in Malibu for $100 million – but not before media mogul Byron Allen negotiated $27.5 million off the original asking price.

Tammy Hughes Gustavson sold her 10,700-square-foot cliffside compound at 27628 Pacific Coast Highway, the Wall Street Journal reported. Allen’s purchase makes it the priciest home ever purchased by an African-American in the U.S.

The Paradise Cove estate was formerly owned by her late father, B. Wayne Hughes, who co-founded Glendale-based Public Storage in 1972 and died last year. He paid $20 million for it in 2003.

27628 Pacific Coast Highway (Jade Mills Estates)

The 3.6-acre property includes a four-bedroom main house and two guest houses overlooking the Pacific Ocean. It was listed in May for $127.5 million. 

It sits next to a $190 million compound owned by WhatsApp co-founder Jan Koum.

The home, described as a “contemporary villa,” has a screening room, dining room and large terraces. There is a living room with a fireplace, while a large kitchen opens to an outdoor dining area.

27628 Pacific Coast Highway (Jade Mills Estates)

One guest house has a space that could be used as a ballet studio or gym, and the grounds also include a tennis court.

Staff quarters with a kitchen are located off the three-car garage. Above the garage are two guest suites, each with bathrooms and terraces, and one with a kitchenette.

Unlike many Malibu properties, the home has a winding path allowing the owner to drive a golf cart down to the beach, whose frontage spans nearly 210 feet.

27628 Pacific Coast Highway (Jade Mills Estates)

Broker Jade Mills of Coldwell Banker Realty represented Gustavson. Allen was represented by Terence Hill of BT Equities, plus an in-house agent with Allen’s family office.

The property is the latest addition to Allen’s growing real-estate portfolio, which includes trophy residences in Aspen, New York, Maui and Beverly Hills, according to the Journal, citing people familiar with the properties.

Allen, who started out as a comedian, is the founder and chief executive of Entertainment Studios/Allen Media Group, one of the nation’s largest privately held media companies, which owns the Weather Channel. His company owns 12 cable networks and about 70 television shows, plus close to 30 ABC, NBC, CBS and Fox affiliates.

The purchase follows a series of record real estate listings and sales along the Malibu coast, and is among the highest prices paid for a U.S. home this year.

In April, former Disney CEO Michael Eisner listed his 25,000-square-foot Malibu estate for $225 million – which could set a California sales price record.

Since October of last year, venture capitalist Marc Andreessen and his wife, Laura Arrillaga-Andreessen, have bought three separate Malibu homes for a combined $255.5 million.

Last month, reality TV billionaire star Kim Kardashian paid $70.4 million for a nearby property formerly owned by model Cindy Crawford and Rande Gerber, initially listed for $100 million.

— Dana Bartholomew

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