A sale of undeveloped land in La Jolla Shores this week for $35 million tied a record for the biggest purchase in the seaside neighborhood.
At 4.5 acres, the property at 8303 La Jolla Shores Drive, is unique because it is only about 2,000 feet from the ocean and, unlike much of the shoreline, is mostly a blank slate to build whatever the buyer wants. A 30-acre property at 7007 Country Club Drive in May also sold for $35 million.
The property has been in different stages of development for several years, reported the La Jolla Light, a publication of the U-T Community Press. Property records show a La Jolla-based company called Ciel Eau LLC owned the property since at least 2018, paying $24 million for it.
The new owners, organized under an LLC named Cielo Mar La Jolla, are six separate parties that plan to build six homes on the land, said real estate agents that represented both sides of the deal, Ross Clark and Brett Dickinson.
Clark and Dickinson said the new owners already have approvals, but are probably a year out from construction. Probably making things go over better with neighbors, six new mansions won’t have the intense density of, say, an apartment building. Also, the plan of a previous owner was for eight homes.
The six buyers did not previously know each other but came together after each contacted Clark and Dickinson individually looking for property in La Jolla. They described the buyers as three international families, and three from Southern California. They said non-disclosure agreements meant they could not reveal much about the buyers, and identities are shielded through the LLC.
Clark and Dickinson also sold the other $35 million La Jolla property this year, the Foxhill Estate formerly owned by two former publishers of The San Diego Union-Tribune, first the Copley family and then hotel developer Doug Manchester.
The agents said affluent buyers from other parts of California, such as the Bay Area, and international buyers, have zeroed in on La Jolla.
“Some of these buyers would not have come here a couple of years ago,” Clark said. “But they have discovered La Jolla.”
Clark said that many affluent buyers are concerned about climate change, in particular heat waves, and might have gone to Florida a few years ago. Instead, he said, they see San Diego as a better option.
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“For a variety of economic and quality of life reasons, we’re seeing a lot of super high-end buyers coming to our town,” Clark said.
A 1940s, 3,304-square-foot single-family home on the property will be torn down. The home is accessed by a single, private road. Current owners are the same ones who have been submitting plans to various La Jolla permit-review committees, but had held off on the actual purchase until most were approved.
Neighbors within 300 feet of the property have already received letters informing them of the proposed plans.
The biggest sale in San Diego County was 2940 Sandy Lane in Del Mar, which sold for $44.1 million in October. The Foxhill Estate and the latest La Jolla sale are both tied for around the third or fourth biggest sale, according to the latest publicly available data.
