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MALIBU, Calif. () — One year after the Palisades Fire, the devastation in Malibu and lack of progress is shocking. Only 22 building permits have been issued.
For perspective, the city of Los Angeles has issued more than 1,300 permits in Pacific Palisades. Over 700 homes were destroyed in Malibu – 300 of them were beachfront properties along Pacific Coast Highway.
Malibu City Councilman Steve Uhring is worried wealthy developers will come in and combine lots, building 20,000-square-foot homes, a second or third home for someone and not homes for permanent residents.
“It’s gotta be a community that has a group of homeowners who live here, who are invested in the community, who participate in what goes on in the community, and that’s what will make us a good city again,” Uhring said.
So it’s no surprise longtime Malibu residents like Uhring have concerns about what New Zealand billionaire brothers Mat and Nick Mowbray are up to. They’ve purchased 16 beachfront lots where they plan to build 16 prefab homes that are constructed at their company’s factory in China and shipped here.
“What’s unique with our system, it’s a fire-safe system. Walls are made out of AAC, which is a very lightweight concrete that has high insulated values, and the ceiling, the roofs are made of concrete,” said Marcel Fontijn, the director of operations at Zuru Tech, the Mowbray’s company.
The Mowbray brothers have spent summers in Malibu and their team says it’s a community they love, a community they want to rebuild.
The prefab homes are luxury high-end homes that will all look different and can be produced in four to six weeks. The price of the homes will depend on the real estate market once they’re complete. Because of the difficulties in building in Malibu with septic systems, a sea wall and all the site preparation needed before construction, the Mowbrays believe their company, Zuru Tech, is best suited for this project.
“Our plan was to build one home that was used by the Mowbrays, but after we bought the first lot, we had many public inquiries if we were interested in buying additional lots,” Fontijn said. “We don’t want to go through a California Coastal Commission to build very large mansions. We want to truly rebuild what was here before.”
The plan is to have the first two homes complete by the end of 2027 and have all 16 homes done by 2029.
“I think as we get further down the line, everybody’s gonna realize the boys from New Zealand are billionaires, they’re in it to make money. I think whether this plan they got right now is the one that’s gonna make them money, whether there will be a revised plan down the road, my crystal ball’s not good enough to tell you how that’s going to work out,” Uhring said.
At a Malibu City Council meeting last month, Uhring proposed the city institute a maximum allowable square footage rule for beachfront properties, but it was voted down. There’s already a cap on how big your home can be in Malibu if you’re not on the beach.
“Our attention is not of stealing their land or commercializing Malibu,” Fontijn said. “We truly want to return Malibu to what it can be, hopefully a better version of its past self.”
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