An oceanfront house in Malibu’s most fabled guard-gated community — that would be The Colony enclave — sold a couple weeks back for $11,000,000. And as any avid real estate watcher worth their mettle should have already suspected, Yolanda quickly discovered that the home was purchased by multi-billionaire Vegas-based gambling tycoon Sheldon Adelson and his wife, Dr. Miriam Adelson.
Our Mr. Adelson loves Malibu, and particularly The Colony. He has owned a part-time residence there for over 20 years, but it is only just recently (within the last five years) that he has begun acquiring additional properties within the gates at a downright feverish rate.
According to Yolanda’s count, Mr. Adelson now presides over a portfolio of seven Colony properties, five of them oceanfront and two located on the less-desirable “land-side” of the community. He has now spent a total of about $52 million acquiring the properties, though Yolanda believes that the total value of his holdings is now some $70 million or so.
— A 5,018-square-foot oceanfront house, custom-built by Mr. Adelson and completed in 1998 (he later sued his contractor over a pesky mold problem)
— A 2,746-square-foot oceanfront house, bought for $11,000,000 in 2018 (subject of today’s story)
— A 4,225-square-foot oceanfront house, bought for $9,980,000 in 2015 from the estate of Barbie doll inventor Ruth Handler
— A 3,755-square-foot oceanfront house, bought for $10,400,000 in 2015 from Mega Millions lottery winner Kevyn Ogawa
— A 3,295-square-foot oceanfront house w/ swimming pool, bought for $12,000,000 in 2013 from Lee Phillip Bell
— A landlocked lot featuring little more than a tennis court and a chain link fence, bought for $1,750,000 in 2013 from Lee Phillip Bell
— A landlocked lot with a 936-square-foot cottage and parking for six vehicles, bought for $6,800,000 in 2017 from the estate of Jerry Perenchio (the one we are discussin’ today)
Though the 84-year-old Mr. Adelson grew up sleeping on the floor of a one-room Boston tenement, the completely self-made fellow is now the world’s 21st richest person (according to Forbes). He is Chairman and CEO of Las Vegas Sands, America’s largest casino corporation. And he banked billions by betting that Asia’s Macau would become a mecca for international gamblers.
Our boy is probably best-known in the US for his steadfast support of the Republican Party. He is the largest (and very likely the most influential) donor to the American Right. Essentially, he is to Republicans what George Soros is to Democrats. Sort of.
Anyway, here is a quick look at what Mr. Adelson’s $11 million hath bought.
If this house looks vaguely familiar to some of y’all longtime readers, that is because Yolanda wrote about it in late 2016, when it was leased out to singer/performer extraordinare Pink. Check out that story for a more in-depth description of the structure.
Property records reveal the house was sold to Mr. Adelson by an entrepreneur-slash-real-estate-investor named Howard Leight. Our Mr. Leight, for what it’s worth, primarily resides in the Malibu Rocky Oaks Estate, a hulking stone manor house that he custom-built in the rugged mountains above the seaside city. It is here where Mr. Leight and his son Junior maintain a 10-acre winery and vineyard . (That property, for what it’s worth, was on the market a few years back for a still-too-optimistic $43,000,000, reduced from an eye-popping $49 million.)
When he’s not living in Malibu (and not traveling), the still-spry Mr. Adelson resides in a colossal mega-mansion in a swanky guard-gated community on the outskirts of Las Vegas. The red brick Georgian-ish-style behemoth was custom-built by our boy, completed in 2013, has 20 bathrooms and its own private water park, and reportedly weighs in at nearly 44,000-square-feet of living space.
Well, hot damn. Yolanda would call that thing almost ludicrously enormous! It’s so big that the house takes up three parcels of land, each of which could easily contain a “normal-sized” mansion. And just think of how much money it must cost to heat and cool that beast out there in the desert, kiddies. Not that a guy worth nearly $40 billion has to worry about utility bills.
Listing agent: Lance Strumpf
Sheldon Adelson’s agent: Chad Rogers, Hilton & Hyland