Larry Ellison’s Malibu Nobu Hotel Makes Progress

Photo Credit: Stephen Udoff

When Larry Ellison and Nobu Matsuhisa come together, it doesn’t need to be said that great things can be expected.

Progress has been made on the twosome’s hotel concept in Malibu—located in the space formerly occupied by Casa Malibu on the Pacific Coast Highway—which the former Oracle CEO purchased in 2007 for $20 million. They than began working on the hotel in earnest back in September of 2014.

Signage went up late last week, indicating that the Japanese concept hotel’s name is “Nobu Ryokan.” It’s a fitting name, given that a “ryokan” is a small but luxurious Japanese inn that is meant to be more upscale than a typical resort.

Architect Severine Tatangelo of Studio PCH, who also designed the impossibly chic “It” spot Nobu Malibu, is working on the project, which does not yet have a finalized completion/opening date.

Needless to say, another inn would be welcome in the affluent beach community. It will join the Malibu Beach Inn—formerly owned by another billionaire, David Geffen— as only the second luxe hotel in the ‘Bu.

Nobu Hotels are popping up around the world with regularity. Alongside the flagship hotel inside Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas, Matshisa and business partners Robert De Niro and Hollywood producer Meir Teper have opened properties in Manila and Riyadh; Miami at the Eden Roc will open this summer, with additional openings planned for Chicago, London and Bahrain.