Suzan Hughes, the Beverly Hills-based producer and philanthropist who is also a former wife of business magnate Mark Hughes — the late founder of the Herbalife supplement empire — and the mother of his only child and heir, 28-year-old Alexander Hughes, is in escrow for an $8 million estate within the guarded enclave of Malibu Colony, arguably the seaside city’s most exclusive and expensive gated community. The deal, scheduled to close within the next few days, will bring Hughes’ Malibu Colony property tally to two.
Back in 2013, Hughes paid Jim Carrey $13.4 million for his oceanfront Malibu Colony getaway, a contemporary villa with five bedrooms, a rooftop terrace, a gourmet kitchen with top-of-the-line stainless appliances, plus a spa tub with its own “mood lighting.”
As for Hughes’ latest Malibu Colony purchase, photos and details are scant, as the property was never publicly available for sale. But the .28-acre estate is landlocked, located almost directly across the road from her other oceanfront home, and currently consists of little more than a full-size tennis court and a long driveway that leads to a 1,500-square-foot cottage with two bedrooms and three bathrooms, per property records.
Developed in 1973 and owned for decades by the same non-famous family, the parcel would appear ripe for a teardown and new mansion development. But Hughes, who beat out interested real estate developers for the property, has other plans — she would like to see Malibu remain quaint, and thus plans to preserve the existing structure, positioning the expansion of her holdings as a stronghold against neighborhood overdevelopment.