Even if he’s not exactly a household name, most real estate aficionados know who Ron Burkle is. That’s because the billionaire Southern California native, who made his fortune through leveraged buyouts of supermarket chains like Stater Bros., Ralph’s and Fresh & Easy, is one of the biggest collectors of historic and architecturally idiosyncratic properties.
Burkle currently owns the wacky Bob Hope mansion in Palm Springs, originally designed by architect John Lautner. The 69-year-old also owns the sprawling Bob Hope estate in L.A.’s Toluca Lake neighborhood, which he bought in 2018 and saved from demolition. But that’s not all — he’s also got Michael Jackson’s infamous Neverland ranch, the wildly lavish Greenacres estate in prime Beverly Hills, a palatial clifftop estate in La Jolla, and additional homes in London and New York. Back in 2019, Burkle sold Frank Lloyd Wright’s famed Ennis House for $18 million to a married pair of cannabis entrepreneurs.
Today, Burkle is an official Montana resident; his primary residence sits on its own private island in Montana’s peaceful Flathead Lake. That 22,000-square-foot “castle” was built by real estate titan Don Abbey and was once offered for sale for as much as $78 million.
Every billionaire worth their salt also needs a beachfront vacation home in a sunny locale, and records indicate Burkle has now fulfilled that need, dropping $13.5 million on an oceanfront house within Malibu’s guard-gated Malibu Colony community. Nearly 100 years old, the residence was built towards the sunset of the Roaring Twenties, completed in 1928, and remains much the same classic home as it was way back in the day.
Jack Pritchett of Pritchett-Rapf and Associates held the listing; Branden and Rayni Williams of The Beverly Hills Estates repped the buyer.
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Image Credit: Zillow That’s not to say that the house has not been updated through the decades, of course. The Tudor-influenced, mostly A-frame structure has been modernized with the features luxury buyers have come to expect — open and snow-white living spaces, stainless appliances and plenty of storage space.
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Image Credit: Zillow From the private street out front, the place offers plenty of charm. Inside, it’s got five bedrooms and 4.5 baths in about 2,500 square feet of living space. The property was long owned by the late philanthropist Carol Moss, who died last year; Burkle’s acquisition marked the first time the property had traded hands in decades.
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Image Credit: Zillow The unconventional architecture packs in soaring walls of windows, all of them with head-on views of the blue Pacific.
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Image Credit: Zillow The central great room boasts a (whitewashed) brick fireplace and ocean views.
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Image Credit: Zillow Perhaps the most obviously dated part of the house is the kitchen, which looks to have undergone a late-90s renovation.
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Image Credit: Zillow The property’s five bedroom, 4.5 bath count includes the attached guest apartment, which has a kitchenette butting up right next to the bed.
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Image Credit: Zillow The other four bedrooms are more spacious, with enough space for sitting areas.
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Image Credit: Zillow The bathrooms remain a bit uninspired but are perhaps appropriate for a casually comfortable (if quite pricey) beach house.
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Image Credit: Zillow The property’s most interesting feature is what the listing calls the “tea house,” a long and greenhouse-like room with sliding doors to the backyard patio.
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Image Credit: Zillow At the far rear of the lot, a raised wooden deck overlooks the sandy beach.
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Image Credit: Zillow