Big-dollar Malibu land parcel perched above celebrity homes will head to auction in April

Want a bird’s-eye view of Leo DiCaprio’s beach house in Malibu? Here’s a chance to build your own home on the cliffs above properties owned by DiCaprio, along with celebrity couples Cindy Crawford and Rande Gerber, and Neil Young and Daryl Hannah.

A Canadian and Caymanian entrepreneur is putting 130 acres of prime California real estate up for auction in April with Concierge Auctions, in partnership with Bill and Daniel Moss of Coldwell Banker Realty.

Frank Schilling made his fortune acquiring domain names after the dotcom bust and then created Uniregistry, which offers domain extensions and was bought by GoDaddy in 2020.

Schilling tells Gimme Shelter that he bought the undeveloped land, at 31959 Pacific Coast Highway, as three separate but adjacent parcels for a total of $6 million. Known as Encinal Canyon Bluff, the land — which comes with unobstructed ocean views — sits above the Encinal Bluffs. Schilling’s property is still divided into three separate land parcels, but it can be developed as a single-family residence or several single-family homes. It was previously listed for $13.5 million.

“I bought the land a decade ago. My vision, back then, was to build the ‘Iron Man’ house,” Schilling said, referring to the fictional cliffside Malibu home owned by billionaire Tony Stark, a key player in the Marvel Universe. “It feels so removed, but it’s still just a 5-minute drive from Starbucks. That’s the charm. Where else can you get that much land close to the highway within reach of the beach, but above it?” Schilling added.

Still, plans change. “I kept building the internet company, then I sold it, COVID happened, and I had more work on the East Coast.”

Schilling has since moved to the Cayman Islands, where he owns the restaurant Mykonos Cayman, and launched a Greek sparkling rosé, Aphrodise. Bidding begins online March 28 and will end with a live auction at the Maybourne Beverly Hills on April 11. Plans for a 10,000-square-foot home were designed by Tobias Architecture.

“The value will define itself,” he added. “An auction is a risk, but a calculated one. It has more reach and excitement — and it puts [the sale] on a clock, which is not a bad thing in a distracting world, where people aren’t trolling Zillow all the time,” Schilling said. “There are around 40 properties along the beach, but there’s only one above you — and it’s desirable for one person to own it all. This is a larger and wider, big, round holding taking up the whole hill above the Encinal Bluffs. You can see the lights of Santa Barbara to Riverside.”

As he summed it up: “It’s magical.”