James McClain
Pop quiz: when is a $177 million house just not enough? When it’s right down the road from a $44.5 million house, of course! That’s how much billionaire Marc Andreessen and his longtime wife Laura Arrillaga have forked out to buy their second Malibu home, which they’ll presumably use as office space or for guest accommodations. The Wall Street Journal first reported the couple’s second big splurge.
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As opposed to his $177 million estate — which sits on a bluff high above Malibu’s Paradise Cove beach and still ranks as the priciest home ever sold in California — Andreessen’s $44.5 million accessory home lies immediately at sea level, right on sandy Escondido Beach, perhaps one of Malibu’s least-crowded gems. The 0.59-acre property includes 130 feet of ocean frontage across two separate (but contiguous) parcels with two different addresses. One of the parcels contains a sleek contemporary mansion with more than 7,000-square-feet of living space across three levels; the other parcel has parking for 14+ cars, a guesthouse and per the listing “room for … an oceanfront swimming pool.”
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The property was sold to Andreessen by longtime Malibu residents Richard and Liane Weintraub, who acquired the sumptuous place in 2018 for $19.5 million. Built in 1991 by entertainment industry veteran Ed Fishman, the boxy modern house at that time sported dated interiors and was painted an odd shade of salmon pink. American architect Chad Oppenheim and acclaimed Malibu local Douglas W. Burdge were subsequently hired by the Weintraubs to convert the place into a sleek contemporary showpiece; today, the newly revitalized mansion sports casually cool and elegant interiors awash in muted neutral decor, with Venetian plaster, Navona travertine floors and walls of glass breathing in the unstoppable ocean views.
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Last summer, the Weintraubs put the property up for sale, asking $55 million. By the time Andreessen came calling, the ask had cratered to $51.5 million, and the buyers negotiated an additional $7 million discount. Still, records indicate this is still the priciest Malibu real estate deal inked so far in 2022. (That $177 million transfer recorded back in October.) Chris Cortazzo of Compass handled both sides of the deal.
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Though he gained early internet fame for co-founding Netscape and the tech-focused venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz — through which he’s been a key early investor in Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, GitHub and many more — Andreessen, 50, has more recently established himself as a cryptocurrency tycoon, and the leader of a big crypto venture fund. His net worth is $1.7 billion, per Forbes, though we’re guessing that estimation falls on the conservative side. Andreessen’s father-in-law, who died in January, was long one of Silicon Valley’s largest landowners and was reportedly worth $2.5 billion himself.
For now, Andreessen and Arrillaga’s main residence remains a Tuscan-style mansion in the Bay Area town of Atherton, Calif. The couple acquired that estate way back in 2007, paying $16.6 million. Last year, they reportedly dropped $36 million on a vacant property just outside Las Vegas, Nevada.