Smizing supermodel turned reality TV tycoon, beauty industry entrepreneur and university-level educator Tyra Banks has plunked down almost $4.72 million for an oceanfront getaway in Malibu. From the looks of things, the “Top Model” franchise creator, a guest lecturer on “personal branding” at Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business, and named last year as the new host of the cheesy and immensely popular “Dancing with the Stars,” will have a home renovation project on her hands as the well maintained beach house is definitely in need of some updating and upgrading.
With unobstructed and meditative ship-like views over the ocean, the just under 4,100-square-foot spread, an early 1980s postmodern contemporary that sits right on the sand where the surf breaks against the pylons under the house, offers four bedrooms and four bathrooms plus parking for at least five cars, the latter a huge bonus in Malibu where parking can be, to put it mildly, frustrating.
The Saltillo tiles that pave the walled and gated courtyard entry continue into a cavernous double-height atrium bathed in natural light thanks to a ribbon of clerestory windows and a gigantic industrial skylight. A fireplace in the wood-floored living room takes the foggy nip off the frequently chilly coastal climate, and glass doors open the sunset-view room to a deck that cantilevers over the water. Spacious and arranged around a huge island, but stuck in the 1980s like a fly in honey with dark-grouted tan ceramic tile counters, plain oak cabinets and a hodgepodge of average-grade appliances, the kitchen spills over to an informal dining space that overlooks a more formal ocean-front dining room.
Upstairs bedrooms include a primary suite complete with a fireplace, an ocean-facing terrace, a skylight-topped walk-in closet and a bathroom finished with the same humdrum tiles and cabinetry as the kitchen. Perhaps the home’s most delicious feature, however, is an expansive rooftop terrace with sweeping views up and down the coastline.
The property was listed with Jonathan Macht of Coldwell Banker Realty; Banks was repped by James Respondek and Heidi Lake of Sotheby’s Int’l Realty.
Though she never lived there, and didn’t follow through on plans to convert the down-on-its-heels house into a farmhouse inspired cottage, Banks recently sold a dated residence in nearby Pacific Palisades for $3.253 million, a chunk over the $3.062 million she paid for the humbly proportioned yet forbiddingly expensive three-bedroom ranch-style house just over 1.5 years ago. Her holdings still include another Pacific Palisades home, an imposing three-story contemporary she picked up about three years ago for not quite $7 million, an unassuming residence in the Ladera Heights area of Los Angeles that she acquired in 2007 for a bit more than $1.3 million, and a 7000-square-foot duplex condo in New York City’s upscale Battery Park neighborhood that she snagged in 2009 for a bit more than $10.13 million and briefly had on the market in 2017 at $17.5 million.