Now Comes the California Fire Sale: China-Based Company Is Buying Up Land Incinerated by Firestorms

If foreign corporations want to buy burned-out properties, can those sales be stopped? Should they be stopped?

by Tyler Durden

Authored by Victoria Taft via PJMedia.com,

Now comes the fire sale.

If foreign corporations want to buy burned-out properties, can those sales be stopped? Should they be stopped?

When the feared firestorm hit Pacific Palisades, Malibu, and Altadena in Southern California last January, the Los Angeles mayor was MIA, the "public safety" guy in charge—the vice mayor—was on home confinement for making an anti-Israel bomb threat on city hall, fire fighters were not pre-deployed, there was no water in the reservoir, and fire hydrants went dry in the Palisades.

Soon came vows by L.A. Mayor Karen Bass and elected officials in Malibu, Altadena, and the Palisades to streamline the rebuilding and permitting, which turned out to be a joke. Now, amid bad leadership, virtue signaling masquerading as help, incinerated FireAid money, and promises in name only, comes the fire sale.

In early August came word from an exclusive story in Realtor.com that foreign investors were buying up prime lots in the burned-out area of an iconic Malibu beach.

Now, a foreign investor has been secretly scooping up many of the burned lots on the oceanfront side of the PCH—with the vision of rebuilding the mansions that dotted the coastline in the iconic beach town.

'Once this beach is built back and it's all brand-new construction, I think it's going to be a very desirable spot for a lot of wealthy people to try to buy a beach house,' Weston Littlefield with the Weston James Group tells Realtor.com®.

The luxury real estate agent and his colleague Alex Howe have been working with the investor who has, so far, purchased nine lots worth more than $65 million—but the process isn't random.

The strip of homes nestled between the Pacific Coast Highway and the Pacific Ocean is the storied La Costa Beach.

Nine of the most desirable lots have been sold by people who can't wait or can't afford to rebuild.

Our RedState colleague, Jen Van Laar, reports that the buyers are a couple of Kiwis—New Zealanders. These businessmen are based in the once-free Hong Kong, China to be close to their toy manufacturing empire in Guangzhou and Shenzhen. They also own a business park in Issaquah, Washington.

Nick and Mat Mowbray run Zuru, a company well known for making mini toys and replicas.

The Mowbray brothers also run another Chinese-based company, Zuru Tech, that makes modular pre-fab homes made of a concrete which they plan to use in their new Malibu real estate venture. Let's hope they're not mini homes.

Jen makes a good point about the old carbon footprint of shipping all those concrete housing pieces across the ocean. It does seem contrary to those California "values" we keep being hectored about. Remember, this is the state, after all, that made the LADWP restore brush to save an alleged endangered weed after LAWP cleared it due to fire danger. I do not stutter. See Stunner: California Saved a Shrub Instead of Protecting Humans From the L.A. Firestorm.

But back to the land grab. Yahoo News reported that one of the brokers says "the investor wants to rebuild the mansions and expects the investment will turn a considerable profit with 'time and patience.'" The current estimate to get permits approved in Malibu is anywhere from one to two years.

How many Malibu fire victims have the time and money to wait that long? Probably a few, but not all.

Here's another question. Are California's so-called "values" honored by allowing foreign investors to reshape the premier and most iconic real estate of the West Coast of the United States? Should stopping foreign ownership even be considered in a relatively free market?

Gov. Gavin Newsom signed an executive order to protect people in Altadena, parts of Malibu, and the Palisades from lowball real estate offers while deploring "greedy speculators taking advantage of their pain." Is that what buying a $10+ million property before the fire and settling for $6 million for a beach lot is—speculating?

In Altadena, Dwell Magazine reports that at least half of the properties for sale following the devastating January fires have been purchased by corporations; however, "individuals can purchase property through LLCs to limit legal exposure." The publication reports, however, that's higher than the national trend and furthermore, "42 percent of those sales are now held by just six companies, each of which has acquired four or more homes."

Dwell reports, "Black Lion Properties, LLC—recently confirmed to be operated by Edwin Castro, the record-breaking Powerball winner... The company has quietly acquired at least a dozen fire-damaged or distressed properties in Altadena, spending nearly $9 million in the process."

Interesting side note. Castro, the top buyer in Altadena, is a local Powerball Lottery winner who's putting his winnings in real estate rather than hookers, blow, and trinkets. In 2022, Castro won "$2.04 billion," but by the time Uncle Sugar got his cut, the lump sum payment ended up being "$997 million." He bought his parents a new home in Altadena, and he bought one in Malibu, which was ironically, torched in the firestorm.

Another company, "Sheng Feng Global Inc., formed in 2022, is associated with several shell-like entities related to real estate" has purchased six home sites in the Altadena area. The company is connected to multiple real estate entities and "hints at possible international ownership, but the full picture remains murky." It sure does. A logistics company in China could be connected, but, as Dwell reports, things are "murky."

By design.

California Democrats have turned down at least three proposed laws to limit or ban foreign ownership of large amounts of land. Assembly Bill 475 would have halted foreign land ownership within 50 miles of military installations, and Senate Bill 224 would have, had it passed, stopped foreign governments from a controlling interest in agricultural land. The legislature did pass, however, Senate Bill 1084, in 2022, that would have restricted ownership of California agricultural land.

Gavin Newsom vetoed it, saying the feds were already handling the problem. The Biden administration wasn't.

To what extent, if any, should California officials stop the foreign ownership of American land?

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