The Wait Is Over: Privé Malibu Redefines Coastal Living for a New EraInside the first new residential offering in Malibu in nearly two decades.
By Tricia Love Trujillo
June 23, 2026 · Point Dume, Malibu, California
There is a particular quality of light that exists only at Point Dume — the way the late afternoon sun dissolves into the Pacific in layers of amber and sage, the way the sea air carries something botanical and wild, as if the bluffs themselves are exhaling. My husband and I have spent years covering the finest addresses in Los Angeles and beyond for this magazine. We have checked into suites from Montecito to Malaysia. Between the two of us we have traveled to more than 55 countries, checked into suites from Montecito to Malaysia, experiencing luxury in many forms. But on a warm Saturday in early June, stepping through the gates of Privé Malibu, we felt something we had not anticipated: genuine stillness.
We had come at the invitation of the development team for a weekend of relaxation in the project's guest residence — a preview of what life looks like inside what Adam Kaufman, Principal of AdaMark Development Sales & Marketing, calls "a once-in-a-generation opportunity." It is not a phrase deployed for effect. It is a statement of historical fact: Malibu, one of the most coveted coastal addresses, has not seen a new luxury residential development of this scale or caliber in a generation. Privé Malibu, developed by BH3 Management and brought to market through AdaMark, intends to change that. Quietly, deliberately, and beautifully. BH3 Management is a vertically integrated real estate investment, operations, and development firm co-founded in 2009 by Daniel Lebensohn and Gregory Freedman. Since inception, BH3 has acquired, restructured, or developed dozens of multifamily, condominium, and mixed-use properties across South Florida, New York, and California, with more than $1 billion in equity and $2 billion in debt deployed across those markets. Privé Malibu represents the firm's first major residential offering on the West Coast — and a deliberate one. AdaMark Development Sales & Marketing is a Miami-based luxury project sales and marketing firm led by Kaufman and Pordes. Collectively, the two bring more than sixty years of experience representing luxury condominium, resort, and master-planned residential developments throughout the United States, Canada, and the Caribbean. Mark Pordes, who co-leads the firm alongside Kaufman, is direct about where AdaMark sets its bar. "We only take on projects we believe in," he said, "that have the bells and whistles that meet that high bar of luxury — something that would attract this kind of buyer. Something special and unique." Kaufman and Pordes, who together have spent decades in new development, high-rise and mid-rise projects across Miami, the Bahamas, Las Vegas, Naples, and now California — were equally direct: Privé Malibu clears that bar in a way neither has seen in this market.
The Arrival — A 10-Acre Cleansing Breath
We turned off Pacific Coast Highway onto Cavalleri Road just after noon, the city’s noise already beginning its retreat. The property occupies ten lush, private acres at the geographical center of Malibu — a detail that sounds abstract until you are standing within it and feel, viscerally, that you have arrived somewhere whole. The development team describes it as a private lifestyle community thoughtfully designed to bring harmony between home, wellness, and the outdoors. The landscape unfolds in manicured layers: walking paths winding past sculpted gardens, an open lawn for morning stretching and quiet reflection, meditation areas that earn the name. The developers call it “a 10-acre cleansing breath.” Standing there, you understand why.
There are only 151 total condominiums and townhomes in all of Malibu — and the overwhelming majority of the city’s real estate is single-family homes. Kaufman made that point with some deliberateness when we spoke. “This presents an opportunity for someone to come in and not look at something that’s over 20 years old and needs work,” he said, “but something new, done by a developer, done the right way.” Sixty-eight exclusive residences across four buildings — townhomes, single-story residences, and penthouses — ranging from 1,500 to over 2,400 square feet, priced from $1.95 million. The scale is intentional. This is not a tower. It is a community, human in proportion, shaped by the land rather than imposed upon it.
The Residence — Soaring Ceilings & Earth Tones
Our guest suite, which mirrors the project’s finished residences, stopped us at the threshold. The ceilings — up to seventeen feet in certain homes — do something extraordinary to the senses: they slow you down. Natural light flooded through floor-to-ceiling windows, wall-to-wall glass framing a verdant oasis that stretched beyond the terrace into the hills. The palette was what the project’s principal designers describe as earth tones and luxury finishes: warm neutrals, soft greens, the muted blues of the sea at dusk.
The interiors are the work of two firms whose names carry serious weight in the luxury residential world. Steven Gurowitz — known throughout the industry simply as Steven G. — founded Interiors by Steven G. in 1984, building a forty-year legacy that has shaped projects including Turnberry Ocean Club and Sabbia Beach. His work at Privé Malibu is calibrated to the coastal setting: classic palettes that mirror the changing moods of the sea, soft blues and warm neutrals that breathe rather than declare. Alongside him, Miami-based Row 01 brings a hospitality-forward sensibility — meticulous craftsmanship, environments designed to be aesthetically pleasing, functional, and genuinely inspiring.
The kitchen is the kind that invites you to cook even when you had no such intention. Italian-inspired custom cabinetry, European quartz countertops and backsplashes, and a suite of premium Thermador® and Bertazzoni® appliances — the sort of combination that a serious home cook or a lifestyle buyer will both recognize as a statement of priorities. The elegant marble fireplace anchors the living room with quiet authority, and the flow-through floor plans ensure that neither space ever feels subordinate to the other. The oversized terrace, seamlessly embracing what the brand calls your verdant oasis, is where we spent the better part of the afternoon with a glass of wine and no particular agenda.
One detail that may surprise first-time visitors: twenty of the sixty-eight residences are available fully furnished and turnkey — fourteen designed and appointed by Steven G., and six by Row 01. Mark Pordes puts it plainly, “Somebody can come in and have their pick of the litter, and say, ‘I don’t want the hassle of hiring a designer — I want something to close on right away, move-in ready.’” Simple as that, buy it and walk in. The remaining forty-eight residences are renovated homes ready to personalize, a canvas for the buyer who wants the quality of new construction but the expression of their own hand. For the buyer who has everything except time, this is not a minor footnote. It is the offer.
“Distinct and beautiful. Unexpected and wonderful. Every moment of every day is an invitation to live Privé.” - Daniel Lebensohn
The Amenities — Wellness Reimagined
The amenities at Privé Malibu are not catalogued so much as lived. We walked the garden paths that afternoon — hand-painted stones tucked along the trail, the kind of detail you only notice when you slow down enough to look, and this place makes it easy to do just that. From there we made our way to the pool. The cabanas are generous, the umbrellas well-placed, and the water was exactly what a warm Malibu afternoon calls for. Nobody was rushing anywhere. That is not an accident of the afternoon — it is the design of the place. We finished with a session in the fitness center, which is properly equipped and serious enough to satisfy someone who trains daily, not the afterthought gym that luxury properties too often deliver.
The private sports complex — pickleball, tennis, and basketball courts — sits at the property's edge, and the wellness center adds a biohacking studio, cold plunge, and infrared sauna to the mix. There is a dedicated dog park, a children's playground, and alfresco dining and grill areas for those evenings when you have no desire to leave. On the nights you do — and there will be those — the world beyond the gate rewards the short drive.
Lebensohn described it with a phrase he returns to often: rare earth. "Not only are you getting a gorgeous residence," he said, "but you're getting 10 acres of amenities" — set inside what he called "a wilderness basically, in the forest, where it's complete privacy from any neighbors." Something rare, something of the earth. Sixty-eight residences on ten acres. That ratio is the whole story.
Dinner at Nobu — The Point, Delivered.
By early evening we had made the short drive south toward the water, arriving at Nobu Malibu as the last of the day's light was dipping below the horizon. If you have not eaten here, it is worth understanding that Nobu Malibu is not simply a restaurant — it is one of those rare convergences of setting, food, and atmosphere that the coastline occasionally produces and cannot be replicated inland. The black cod miso arrived as it always does, and the room settled into that particular Malibu rhythm: unhurried, intimate, aware of itself without being performative.
The drive from Privé Malibu to Nobu had taken minutes. Proximity to world-class dining, without the grid and the noise of the city, is precisely the value proposition that Point Dume has always offered its residents and that Privé Malibu now packages in a form that had, until now, simply not existed.
Sunday Morning — The Coast, The Town, The Life
Sunday unfolded the way Malibu Sundays are meant to — enjoying reset and rest with the coast doing most of the work. We drove into town, browsed the boutiques along Malibu Country Mart, and let the morning stretch itself out over coffee and ocean air. There is a particular ease to shopping here that has nothing to do with what you buy — it is the light, the unhurried pace, the way the mountains and the water compete for your attention from every angle and both win. For lunch we made our way to Scott's, a local favorite that earns its regulars the old-fashioned way: good food, no theater, and a room full of people who clearly had no intention of being anywhere else.
We passed Point Dume Village on the way back, noted the proximity to Point Dume School and Malibu Elementary, and felt what the developers mean when they describe Point Dume as less a collection of homes than a collective neighborhood. Kaufman put it plainly: “the family looking for a primary or a second home, and a couple that has multiple homes in different markets looking for a pied-à-terre with the lock-and-leave ease that Malibu's traditional single-family inventory simply cannot provide.” It’s for artists and surfers seeking a getaway. People like us, who simply want to be somewhere that does not require the city's constant maintenance of itself.
The Verdict — Know the Point.
I asked Adam Kaufman, near the end of our conversation, what he felt the press had not yet captured about Privé Malibu. His answer was immediate. "I don't think the press has conveyed that this is a generational opportunity," he said. "First time in Malibu in 20 years that anything new has been released — especially from a condominium level, at this price range. To find something like this, new, it just doesn't exist anywhere."
"Malibu is up there with Miami, the Hamptons, Aspen," he said. "You can be anywhere in the world and say 'Malibu' and it has that real appeal for people. That beachside community where you can go and decompress and unwind and really have an escape from big city life, breathe in that mountain air and that salt water air."
The difference now is that for the first time in twenty years, ownership at that level is attainable — not through a resale that carries two decades of wear, but through something built from scratch, done right, with world-class designers and a development team that has done this at the highest level across three countries.
We have covered a great many real estate projects in these pages over the years. Most arrive with a version of the same story: the designer names, the kitchen appliances, the proximity to dining. What distinguishes Privé Malibu is harder to quantify and easier to feel. It is the only place in Malibu where you can own a new, purpose-designed coastal luxury residence within a ten-acre private oasis that has been engineered equally for beauty and resilience, for wellness and proximity, for the quiet weekday morning and the Nobu Friday night. And then there is the thing that warms the heart most. What the market could not offer until now — and what no amount of searching could produce — is a place to land that is finished, designed with intention, and rooted in the community that so many were forced to leave. For Malibu residents displaced by the fires, Privé Malibu is not simply a real estate opportunity. It is a way home.
BH3 Management has done something that sounds simple but is extraordinarily difficult: they have transformed something that now truly belongs here. The earth tones are not a palette choice — they are a response to the land. The soaring ceilings are not a selling point — they are the architecture's acknowledgment of the sky. The ten acres are not a marketing figure — they are room to exhale.
Sixty-eight exclusive residences. From $1.95 million. Available now.If you have ever thought about Malibu — and if you have read this far, you have — this is the moment. The window is not simply commercial. It is historical.
About the Author
Tricia Trujillo is a luxury lifestyle writer and co-owner of LA Style Magazine. She and her husband, luxury real estate professional Joseph Trujillo — known to his clients as Mr. Los Angeles Real Estate — were among the first invited behind the gates of Privé Malibu. Joseph has a professional relationship with Privé Malibu. For property inquiries, contact Joseph here.
