He’s back at it again. Tech titan Brendan Iribe, who has a penchant for collecting luxury houses like they’re so many Baby Yoda action figurines, has paid about $13.3 million — in cash — for a large mansion in the posh seaside community of Pacific Palisades, deep on L.A.’s Westside.
Back in 2012, Iribe co-founded and served as CEO of Oculus VR, a crowd-funded tech startup that was sold in 2014 to Facebook for a whopping $2 billion in cash and stock. Since then, he’s departed Facebook and donated a record $31 million to the University of Maryland, though he may be best-known to the general public as Emma Watson’s on-again/off-again boyfriend.
According to records, the Palisades house was built new in 2015 and sold the following year for $11.2 million to Kaily Smith Westbrook, the younger daughter of married billionaires Michael and Iris Smith. The elder Smiths, of course, recently made real estate waves of their own by paying $110 million in cash for a spectacular estate in the Hamptons and quickly dropping another $110 million for an oceanfront Malibu home that they’ve since ripped apart.
Iribe’s new East Coast-style traditional manse is sited on a pretty, sycamore-lined street in the highly desirable Riviera enclave. A walkway lined with impeccably manicured shrubs leads past a front gate and hedgerow to the home’s wee front porch. Inside, there are honey-hued hardwood floors, neutral decor and all the luxury amenities one would expect in a $13 million estate located in one of L.A.’s most desirable zip codes.
To the right of the entryway is a formal dining room; to the left is a baronial living room with fireplace. Other less formal spaces include a family room with a tremendous foldaway wall of glass for indoor/outdoor living and a convenient, marble-topped wet bar. There’s also a kitchen with industrial-style stainless appliances and downstairs maid’s quarters.
On the upper floor lies a master suite with sitting area, fireplace and a spa-style bath, plus a boutique-style walk-in closet and a totally custom dressing room/beauty parlor with vanity, additional storage space for designer outfits and a tufted couch for swooning the days away.
Naturally, the home also features a finished basement level, this one equipped with a full range of recreational amenities. There’s an open lounge area, a temperature-controlled walk-in wine closet, a soundproof movie theater, and a mirror-walled gym.
Although the .32-acre lot isn’t particularly big, the flat backyard includes a plunge pool with Baja shelf, a wide grassy lawn, full outdoor kitchen/BBQ center, and a long terrace with plentiful options for alfresco lounging and dining.
About three years ago, Iribe shattered the Venice real estate record by paying $14.6 million for a snazzy contemporary compound. He’s also got a $7 million home in Palo Alto, up in NorCal’s Silicon Valley, and he once owned a mansion in nearby Atherton, Calif., that was sold in 2015 for $13 million to venture capitalist Byron Deeter.
Iribe’s priciest home, however, is a spectacular blufftop compound in Laguna Beach, Calif. that he acquired in 2014 for $31 million. According to local reports, that place is currently undergoing a multimillion-dollar renovation and is located in the same exclusive guard-gated community that is home to other billionaires like Sue Gross and LA Fitness co-founder Chinyol Yi.
As for Westbrook, she’s moved just about one block away from her old Riviera digs — into a slightly larger but stylistically similar house that she bought for $13.2 million in 2018 from French comedian Dany Boon.
Michelle Schwartz and Corey Kessler of The Agency jointly held the listing and also repped Iribe.