Pioneering Malibu Luxury Detox Compound Lists for $20M

A 3-acre compound in the Malibu Hills that once housed a luxury detox center that sobered up the likes of Britney Spears, Charlie Sheen and Lindsay Lohan has listed for $19.5 million.

The mostly Mediterranean-style campus where Promises Malibu pioneered its “Malibu Model” for treating alcohol and drug addiction is up for sale at 20725 Rockcroft Drive, the Los Angeles Times reported.

The detox campus is where real estate developer Richard Rogg launched Promises Malibu in 1989 as the area’s first luxury treatment center. By 2018, new owners filed for bankruptcy and Promises eventually closed.

The hilltop estate, now run by an unidentified rehab facility, has sweeping views of the Pacific Ocean.

“It was a combo of serious treatment and health spa,” Sean Landon of Douglas Elliman, who holds the listing with Jennifer Johnson, told the Times. The listing doesn’t appear on their websites.

The compound includes three single-family homes containing 12 bedrooms and 10 bathrooms across 9,300 square feet. There are three entrances and a huge parking lot for guests.

The homes, revamped numerous times, contain bleach-white interiors, wood-beam ceilings, hardwood floors and fireplaces, according to listing photos. Outside, two swimming pools and a tennis court are surrounded by oak and fruit trees.

A buyer would have to honor the unspecified lease of the current rehab facility, Landon said. After that, he sees a tech or foreign buyer redeveloping the site into a hilltop oasis. A developer could also turn it into a luxury assisted-living facility.

Promises Malibu, which had operated as a for-profit business, set the stage for a string of other luxury Malibu rehabs by permitting cell phones, trips to an off-site gym and appointments between meals of chef-prepared lobster and osso buco.

— Dana Bartholomew