Ardie Tavangarian to Bring Fire-Resistant Homes NorCal, Florida

A name synonymous with luxury development has a new proposition in the rebuilding post-Palisades and Eaton fires.

Ardie Tavangarian, founder of Arya Group, on Friday offered media a first look at a Pacific Palisades home for his daughters that was built in six months with fire resistance in mind. He calls it a proof of concept to the community. Next plans to build his own home in the Palisades using the same fire-resistant materials, and then a neighbor’s property–he said the list of interested residents grows but declined to give numbers.\

Named Versa Villa, the residence at 1241 Bienveneda Avenue in the Palisades features 30 tons of steel framing used in place of wood. The walls of the roughly 4,200-square-foot home have been tested to withstand fire exposure for as many as six hours, with a thickness of 12 inches and made from materials such as magnesium oxide and stone. Artificial intelligence programs can detect a fire and also trigger a response system that includes outdoor sprinklers and two 20,000-gallon water tanks.

1241 Bienveneda Avenue in the Pacific Palisades (Arya Group)

Last January’s wildfires claimed 13 homes Tavangarian built, including his and his family’s residences, and the megamansion at 1601 San Onofre Drive featured in HBO’s “Succession,” The scope of the devastation left him fixated on creating a new kind of luxury for homeowners in the certainty of a safer home. Along the way, he also unintentionally delved into the state’s building codes and insurance industry.

“My goal for the rest of my career is to impact [at a] much bigger level the community and the humanity as much as possible versus just very exclusive luxury experiences that I’ve been doing,” he said.

He said his fire-resistant home is an example of efficient building at what he called a “reasonable” cost, which was reportedly $3 million to $3.5 million for the Bienveneda Avenue property.

He said after talks with as many as a dozen insurance carriers, he found a lack of consistency in the way companies evaluate risk. Once he said he was able to educate the carriers on how his home was built, he was able to realize a 75 percent reduction in costs to get the home insured.

That about stacks up with Ghost Factory, which is also helping homeowners rebuild with steel-framed structures rather than wood. The steel framing supplier’s Matt McRoskey told The Real Deal late last year a homeowner using their steel to rebuild at 854 Galloway Street is realizing their own insurance savings when compared to nearby wood-framed homes.

Tavangarian is now creating set floor plans, ranging from 2,500 square feet all the way up to as much as 8,000 square feet, of his fire resistant homes for homeowners across the Palisades, Malibu and Altadena to choose from. He also aims to take his proof of concept to other markets, including Northern California, Texas, Florida, Tennessee and other places in need of shelter that will address fires, earthquakes, hurricanes and other natural disaster concerns.

“The way this building process is, it could apply anywhere in the country,” Tavangarian said.