Saturday, December 31, 2011

Pierce Brosan Goes Mano-a-Mano with Eroding Beach in the Bu

There's trouble in paradise if one's idea of paradise is the freakishly expensive strip of sand known as Broad Beach in Malibu, CA. Broad Beach has for decades been lined with beach bungalows and ocean front mansions, many owned by rich and famous folks, showbiz executives, and a slew of west coast-based Wall Street types.

One of Broad Beach's newest mansions, now just about finished, was built for and is owned by smoldering Irish-born movie star Pierce Brosnan (Mamma Mia!, The Thomas Crown Affair and half a dozen money makers from the James Bond film franchise) and his second wife, former actress/tee-vee presenter/activist Keely Shaye Smith.

We're not sure why the gossips at X17 reported earlier in the week that Mister Brosnan and Missus Shaye Smith paid a bone shattering $45,000,000 for the two-parcel ocean front spread because the admittedly somewhat vague online records we peeped indicate they acquired the property in March 2000 for $5,100,000.

Whatever the case, the existing house was razed (or at least significantly dismantled) and replaced by a gigantic, just about completed U-shaped Balinese-inspired mansion with ocean side swimming pool and detached guest/pool house.

Unfortunately for Mister Brosnan, Missus Shaye Smith and the many of the other well-heeled (but probably bare-footed) Broad Beach home owners, the shoreline has eroded and diminished significantly over the last 10 or so years. In order to protect their newly built residence, Mister Brosnan and Missus Shaye Smith, as well as numerous other residents along Broad Beach, erected a ghastly but necessary tall wall of sandbags to hold the advancing ocean at bay. More recently home owners along Broad Beach spent boo coo bucks to construct an an even more unsightly and permanent rock revetment between their homes and thundering surf.

Fortunately for him and his, Mister Brosnan's just about completed crib has a swimming pool but should he or any of his children and/or guests desire to stroll along the shoreline or bob around in the ocean, they must first make a grisly, knee scraping scramble over the revetment.

Some of the other property owners who share the same stretch of eroding shoreline as the Brosnans include Tinseltown types such as Steven Spielberg (who leased his contemporary Craftsman-style compound last summer to David and Victoria Beckham for $150,000 per month), Mike Ovitz, Dustin Hoffman, Danny DeVito and Rhea Pearlman, and a slew of high-flying financiers and real estate developers who include Mark Attanasio, George Novogroder, Edward Roski Jr., tool tycoon Eric Smidt, and former shipbuilding mogul turned investor Burton Borman whose 10,000-plus square foot Frank Gehry-designed digs on Broad Beach include, of all luxuries, a lighted and sunken ocean side tennis court.

This is not the first Broad Beach area home Mister Brosnan and Missus Shaye-Smith Brosnan have owned. In fact, the environmentally concerned couple have long resided in Malibu in a Mediterranean style hillside house that sits much closer to busy and loud Pacific Coast Highway than the beach. In June 2010 Mister Brosnan and Missus Shaye-Smith Brosnan listed their 3,412 square foot hillside house with an asking price of $3,900,000. Just a few days before Christmas, eighteen months after first being listed, several price chops that brought the final asking price to $2,790,000, and at least one failed escrow the two-story, 3 bedroom, 3.25 bathroom and 4 fireplace Brosnan/Shaye Smith abode has been sold to a non-celebrity for an undisclosed price We heard through the Malibu celebrity real estate gossip grapevine but can't confirm it went for $2,650,000.

Property records indicate Mister Brosnan and Missus Shaye Smith also own at least one home near the scenic Hanalei and Wainiha bays on the star-studded Hawaiian island of Kauai.

aerial photo: X17

17 comments:

angie said...

They must really love Broad Beach. An eroding shoreline would have been all it took for me to scrap plans for an expensive new home directly in it's path. That unsightly rock pile has to be at least partially obstructing the view, kind of defeating the purpose of owning a home right on the beach, non? I'd prefer a bluff site overlooking the beach any day (go Ellen).

Thanks much Mama.

Anonymous said...

Bingo, Angie. Same with me. They must be just crazy about the area to build this expensive home and then have to put huge rocks to keep the property from washing away. However, let's be realistic. Water will just go under the rocks if it gets high enough. Also, just too congested with no privacy, and I sure hope they put in some grass. It really looks more like a motel on the beach at Panama City Beach, Fl than a home on Malibu.

Anonymous said...

Is there a particular reason why Broad Beach has eroded so quickly compared to other areas in Malibu?

The Colony, Malibu Rd etc.. were always more narrow than Broad Beach which used to be really deep ... yet they've remained the same whereas Broad Beach is washing away.

Perhaps it's Karma - 1] The homeowners hired private security guards to intimidate any non-Broad Beach visitors - often causing fights! 2] The time they created an enormous wall of sand so visitors had to stick to the wet sand 3] Certain residents coming out to the beach & claiming visitors are on a 'Private Beach' & they 'need to leave' when in fact they're not on a private beach!

Payback's a bitch!

Anonymous said...

Very amusing. I adore stories of super rich people spending their money stupidly. As for not being able to get to the beach due to the rocks, why not construct a bridge?; that should not cost too much. Anyway, I do hope global warming continues and their ill-conceived house suffers the consequences. Fools and their money are..........etc. PS: do they think if they decide to sell that they can find greater fools than they?

Anonymous said...

Why don't they put extra sand on the beach?
In Holland the beaches erode every year. Every five years or so, a big ship comes to supplete several million tons of sand on the beach.
The ship sucks the sand e few miles out of shore and with gigantic pipes they put it on the beach.
With such expensive houses it wouldn'nt cost that much!
Here's a short movie how they do it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NNzC6ZNMkz0&feature=related

midTN said...

***

.....in a word...

Kalifornia
***

lol

Anonymous said...

Happy New Year Mama and her readers,

I don't see the appeal of Broad beach in Malibu. It was a foolish decision to build knowing that the shoreline is receding.

Anonymous said...

Wow. I just looked an aerial shot of the houses along Broad Beach on Bing Maps. I don't know when these pictures were made, but there's so doubt comparing picture of the house on this article and the Bing aerial shot that the beaches in the area have eroded and diminished very, very significantly. I'm just amazed even people with money would spend it on a home that could very well be washed away in another few years.

http://www.bing.com/maps/?v=2&cp=pp4vkw52wg8s&lvl=18.48&dir=352.42&sty=b&where1=Broad%20Beach%20Rd%2C%20Malibu%2C%20CA%2090265&form=LMLTCC

Anonymous said...

I agree, if they were indeed lying to people and stating the beach was private when it was not and impeding them from coming on it, then karma is indeed sweet.

Anonymous said...

boo coo is actually spelled beau coup!!

Anonymous said...

1:33, you must be new here. Mama knows this, this is her writing style. Go read the other posts and you will see this.

I would like to point out however that if you are going to try to correct someone you should not make mistakes yourself, beaucoup in a single word.

Mama's Grammarian said...

Actually if you look in the dictionary beaucoup (one word) is also acceptable spelled "boo coo" and
"boo koo," both as two words.

Anonymous said...

A wise man builds his house upon a rock.

That's about the only thing I remember from church camp.

Doug said...

I'm with Angie regarding living on a bluff rather than right on the beach. I'd also rather have a little land surrounding me to keep the neighbors at least some distance away. Even the rich and (in)famous enjoy a good after dinner fart out on the deck and this is something that is best enjoyed in quiet privacy. Not to mention you're subject to the gaseous bodily functions of the folks next door.

Anonymous said...

Maybe the plan is to put a little sand on top of the stones. That would fix the visuals, right?

Anonymous said...

Not sandbags. Rip rap is what it's called. Where stones don't work, they put giant cement castings that look like huge jacks (as in the tiny metal things you spin in a game of jacks).

No they don't cover it with sand. Expect a lot more of this as folks try to protect their beaches against the sea rising AND storms that are more violent and more unpredictable.

First the native beachfront grasses were trampled and died, thus helping erosion; now the rip rap is needed; soon, there will be no way except to build a dike out in the sea, to hold it back.

If you play around on this site,

http://www.californiacoastline.org/

you can see the history of beach changes. Fascinating photos, in terms of detail and going back in time.

Anonymous said...

Only fools buy a place on Broad Beach.....