Group linked to Pepperdine University lists 7 acre lot in Malibu for $20M

A group linked to Pepperdine University has listed a 7-acre Malibu lot for sale with an asking price of $20 million, according to property records.

Wave Enterprises listed 3542 Coast View Drive, located about a mile from the Pepperdine campus. The nonprofit Wave Enterprises manages assets for Pepperdine, according to records.

The land, which overlooks the ocean, was the former site of a nursery. The lot is zoned for commercial use. However, there is already a 62-year-old house on the property. The 2,100-square-foot structure includes three bedrooms and two bathrooms.

Michelle Esquivel-Hart of CB Richard Ellis serves as the listing agent for the property.

An empty lot in Malibu is almost impossible to find, said Jay Luchs, vice chair of commercial real estate firm Newmark. He is the broker for a commercial development next to 3542 Coast View Drive. The adjacent project is a 112,000-square-foot complex with space for retail, restaurant and offices. Called Cross Creek Ranch, it will be designed by Marmol Radziner and is scheduled to open in May 2023.

Luchs is not involved with the sale of the Coast View Drive lot.

“You can’t find space anymore,” he said of Malibu.

A July 22 search on the Property Shark listing site found that there were nine commercial properties for lease in the affluent beachside city.

Luchs advised that any potential buyer of the Coast View Drive will have to go through a lot of bureaucracy to develop the property. “Someone has got to know that they’re going to spend many years of their life working on this,” he said with a laugh.

Pepperdine University’s main location is 830 acres in Malibu, ranked as the most beautiful campus in the nation by The Princeton Review, according to the school’s website. Its Rick J. Caruso School of Law was named after the developer who is currently a candidate for mayor of Los Angeles after Caruso made a donation of $50 million to the school.