Devastated developer’s $40m Malibu mansion destroyed by LA fires just as he finished building it

When the wildfires hit Los Angeles, real estate developer Robert Rivani was just weeks away from putting his newly renovated Malibu mansion on the market for $40 million.

Now the five-bedroom oceanfront home has been reduced to rubble by the Palisades Fire, which is tearing through one of the swankiest enclaves in Los Angeles County.

“It’s devastating,” Florida resident Rivani, 34, told DailyMail.com from his home in Miami on Monday. “I’m in shock.”

Rivani spent about three years renovating the Carbon Beach property and recently added the finishing touches such as marble furnishings, a Zen garden and an infrared sauna.

The project cost him about $27 million, including the price of the original structure, which was built around a courtyard with a lily pad pond.

Rivani planned to put the property on the market for $40 million within three weeks. He has now lost $20 million overnight and can only recoup about $3 million through insurance.

The devastated neighborhood is still being evacuated, and Rivani has only seen his property through shocking post-apocalyptic images of the aftermath.

‘It’s actually a dangerous zone. I don’t want to send anyone there or relive the trauma,” he told DailyMail.com.

As he resigns himself to the loss of the past three years of hard work, Rivani said he blames the “negligence” of local leaders like California Governor Gavin Newsom and Mayor Karen Bass for the utter devastation across LA.

‘These fires happen every year. What have the mayor and municipality done in terms of preventive measures? So far I haven’t seen anything,” he said.

Rivani said the fires are already “the most expensive natural disaster in the history of the United States,” but the aftershock on the real estate market will be even worse.

When asked how the infernos would impact LA’s real estate landscape in the future, he said: “That’s the trillion-dollar question.

“In the short term it will be total devastation.

“The people are gone, the restaurants are gone… rebuilding won’t be easy. People are probably going to take their insurance money.

“I don’t see anything turning for the better unless the government intervenes with the permitting process, otherwise it will be Armageddon.”

“I moved out of LA a few years ago because of the policy. This (the mansion) was one of the last two projects I had in California,” he added.

“Now that this catastrophe has happened, LA is one of the last places I would want to invest.

“California is the most beautiful state in the country with wonderful people, but unfortunately local lawmakers are letting this run into the ground.”

Rivani said he plans to sue the state of California and local officials in LA for “negligence” in handling the wildfires.

“I intend to be one of the first to stand up and say enough is enough. People should pay for what they did – or failed to do,” he said.

Rivani said he wants to lead the case on behalf of all LA residents who have lost their homes, as one of the people who have suffered the greatest financial losses.

“I want to be the voice for everyone else,” he said.

“I know the people of Southern California are a resilient group, and we are going to build back better in the future.

“But the government must support us, they must do what they can to get people back on their feet.”

“I think Donald Trump will put a lot of pressure on them to make improvements,” he added.

“Six to seven years ago, when he was last president, he met with Gavin Newsom to address these issues.

‘Nothing has been done. We still face the same problems. How is that not negligence?

“Elon Musk is going to Mars and trying to start life on Mars, but we can’t stop fires. That seems crazy.’

He blasted LA leaders for cutting the fire department budget and focusing on DEI policies in hiring first responders instead of caring for taxpaying residents.

‘How much money will the city lose if it has saved a few thousand euros on the budget? Billions,” he said. “They think in the small picture – we needed the big picture.”

Rivani also criticized LA Mayor Karen Bass for being in Africa for the Ghanaian president’s inauguration while her city burned, despite ample warnings that a perfect storm for fiery conditions was brewing.

“I am extremely unhappy that she cut fire department budgets and did nothing to address mediation issues,” he said.

‘She is more focused on traveling to Ghana than on her own citizens. What kind of leadership is that?’

A petition demanding the Democrat’s resignation has already collected more than 100,000 signatures.

As the official death toll from the fires rises to 24, concerned residents are preparing for another 72 hours of hellish weather expected to push the fires in new directions.

The number of fatalities is expected to rise, with at least 16 people still missing and 150,000 forced to evacuate their homes.

In total, four fires have consumed more than 60 square miles in LA’s most affluent neighborhoods, wiping out A-list celebrity homes and restaurant hotspots among its 12,300 buildings.

Local fire departments have warned that higher winds and more fire would keep those under mandatory evacuation orders from returning home to assess damage.

“Life-threatening winds and dangerously low humidity are forecast for much of Southern California, creating a significant risk of rapid fire spread,” the California Fire Marshal (CalFire) said in a statement. “The wind will cause more fire activity.”

The Eaton Fire near Pasadena and the Palisades Fire, in a wealthy enclave along the Pacific coast, alone accounted for nearly 93 square miles.

Nearly 70,000 customers across California were without power on Sunday, with more than half in Los Angeles County, according to PowerOutrage.com.

Extremely dry weather conditions due to prolonged drought, dry vegetation and strong Santa Ana winds reaching up to 80 miles per hour in some areas this week created the “perfect storm” for the fires.

Two people have also been arrested for allegedly setting fires in the county as well, including Ruben Montes, 29, who was arrested Sunday for arson in Irwindale, about 15 miles from Altadena, where the deadly Eaton Fire continues to rage.

Mexican national Juan Manuel Sierra-Leyva was also taken into custody after he was reportedly caught on video walking with a yellow blowtorch before being confronted by residents of Calabasas, west of Beverly Hills.