Kurt Rappaport delves into commercial with $40M buy on Canon Drive
The longtime resi broker will renovate 7 storefronts in Beverly Hills
Kurt Rappaport has paid about $40 million to acquire 23,000 square feet of retail space in Beverly Hills, the first major commercial venture for the longtime residential broker, The Real Deal has learned.
Rappaport, co-founder of luxury brokerage Westside Estate Agency, acquired seven storefronts on Canon Drive, home to prominent high-end residential brokerages and upscale restaurants, in an off-market deal that closed Friday.
An unidentified doctor, acting behind an entity named Canon Ball LLC, sold the properties, which include 448 – 460 N. Canon Drive, listing broker Jay Luchs said. The entity purchased the parcels from the estate of the late real estate mogul Fred Sands just two years ago, property records show.
For Rappaport, the deal represents a shift from his bread and butter — high-end residential homes.
Earlier this year, he broke Los Angeles County records when he sold his own seven-bedroom home in Malibu’s Carbon Beach for $110 million to billionaire Daryl Katz. Rappaport also acquired one of his own listings, the Brentwood home of former Viacom executive Frank Biondi Jr., for $16 million in July. In the past, he’s sold homes to Tom Cruise and Tinder co-founder Sean Rad.
“There’s a lot more speculation with residential,” Rappaport said. In commercial, “values just continue to go up.”
His plans for the Canon Drive property include renovating the buildings to their “original 1930s Beverly Hills feel.” That means updating the property’s facade, tearing down walls and “making the spaces more functional to today’s tenant,” he said. There will be retail on the first floor and office space on the second, he added.
Rappaport, who said he’s “actively looking” for more commercial opportunities, isn’t the only broker working both ends of the real estate spectrum.
In 2016, Luchs, a Newmark Knight Frank commercial vice chairman who brokered Rappaport’s recent deal, expanded into residential real estate with his partner Steven Schaefer. Collectively known as Newmark Residential, the two recently sold a 12,500-square-foot mansion in Beverly Hills to Gary Gilbert, co-owner of the Cleveland Cavaliers.
