Apparel Mogul Joe Simsolo Pays $51.7 Million for Eli Broad’s Carbon Beach Mansion

After a long slog on the open market, the oceanfront mansion of the late tract home billionaire, prolific art patron and full-time philanthropist Eli Broad has sold for $51.7 million — well under the original $75 million ask, but still a huge sum by any standard. It’s also the second-biggest Malibu deal inked this year, behind only an $87 million Paradise Cove transaction that recorded in February. Built by famed architect Richard Meier, the boxy house sits on a triple-wide Carbon Beach lot, with 105 feet of spectacular ocean frontage. On the street side, there are dual two-car garages and ample street parking for guests.

Per records, the buyer is clothing magnate Joe Simsolo, an L.A. local and the founder of Gardena-based Next Level Apparel. Founded in 2003, Next Level is now one of the world’s top 10 producers of basic t-shirts and other blank garments for the promotional products industry and the print-on-demand apparel market with $200 million in annual revenue. Back in 2018, Simsolo sold a major chunk of the company to investment firm Blue Point Capital Partners, though financial terms were not disclosed.

Simsolo is also a real estate investor with a portfolio of luxury properties across Los Angeles, though he’s mainly known in realty circles for having recently paid $18.5 million for a titanic contemporary mansion in L.A.’s Bird Streets neighborhood. Previously owned by international fugitive Jho Low, Simsolo is currently giving that neglected estate a high-priced makeover. His main residence, however, appears to remain a grand Mediterranean-style villa in prime Beverly Hills.

As for Meier, his personal reputation has been sullied by a number of #MeToo allegations in recent years, but the lavish homes he’s designed remain in high demand. Elsewhere on Carbon Beach, another Meier-drawn house sold for $110 million about three years ago, an amount that remains the most ever paid for a Malibu residence. And atop Paradise Cove, a beefy Meier-designed mansion sold for $100 million in 2019.

Although it’s set hard up atop bustling Pacific Coast Highway, interiors of the ex-Broad mansion remain admirably private, carefully shielded behind gates and towering, windowless walls. The 5,300 square feet within include five bedrooms, seven full baths, and a double-height living room with unstoppable ocean views. Like all Meier creations, the house is invariably blazingly white, aggressively postmodern, and chock-full of glass expanses. There’s also a separate guesthouse, plus a generous patch of grassy lawn overlooking the sandy beach.

Branden Williams and Rayni Williams of The Beverly Hills Estates and Kurt Rappaport of Westside Estate Agency jointly held the listing; Chris Cortazzo of Coldwell Banker repped Simsolo.