Belwood Investments’ last-ditch effort to skirt foreclosure on a Malibu property came up short, according to a court ruling that put the property into the hands of the lender.
It all started with an ultra-luxury fix-and-flip project gone south, after which the Newport Beach-based firm landed in hot water with lenders and attempted to hide behind a bankruptcy filing in March.
Steven “Bo” Belmont of Belwood had a vision to revamp Kanye West’s former residence at 24844 Malibu Road and, in doing so, double the home’s value. Belmont bought the 4,000-square-foot home from the rapper for $21 million in 2024, expecting to sell it for about $50 million after finishing construction, The Real Deal previously reported.
But delays left the project only partially renovated before the firm attempted to offload it last spring. It went into contract with a $39 million asking price, but the deal never closed.
The debt was mounting, and the investor pool was not happy. Belwood was hit with a notice of default from MZ Brokerage late last year and was facing a foreclosure auction. On the day leading up to the auction, which was set for March 19, Belwood filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
Lenders took Belwood to court requesting its bankruptcy filing be dismissed or converted to Chapter 7, which would force Belwood to liquidate its assets to pay back creditors. Last week, the United States Bankruptcy Court, Central District of California sided with lenders and cleared a path for MZ to pursue foreclosure, determining Belwood acted “in bad faith” when filing for bankruptcy.
The home has a storied history for only being 13 years old. It was built by Japanese architect Tadao Ando for banker Richard Sachs, who sold it to West in 2021 for more than $57 million. West gutted the home, tearing out doors, plumbing, windows, electrical systems — everything. Presumably, he had a renovation plan but failed to execute on it, leaving a shell of a home suited for an eager developer.
Belmont came in and invited a swath of investors to get in on the action, using his firm’s typical fractionalized investment model. A former Belwood employee sued last year accusing the company of being a Ponzi scheme preying on unsophisticated investors. The suit has since settled, the Wall Street Journal reported, with Belmont calling it nothing more than an “attempt to blackmail us.”
