Monaco real estate billionaire Patrice Pastor has bought another historic property in Carmel, leaving locals ‘terrified’ for the future of the Californian city.
Pastor is known for his feud with Monaco’s Prince Albert II – and for the public feud the two have had in recent years.
Through his company Esperanza Carmel, Pastor has been buying up homes and businesses in the small town since 2015, including a $22 million Frank Lloyd Wright home.
According to SFGATE, he now owns more than a dozen properties, with an anonymous third-generation Carmel resident telling the newspaper that “people are terrified” that they are “turning our city over to one person who does what he wants to do.”
The city – which has a population of just 4,000 – was named Vogue’s ‘destination of the moment’ and is a favorite with celebrities including Brad Pitt, who bought a $40 million home there in 2022.
Monaco real estate billionaire Patrice Pastor has purchased well over a dozen properties in the city
Pastor reportedly bought a house from Frank Lloyd Wright in Carmel for $22 million
Pastor’s last purchase was the historic $7.5 million La Rambla building, consisting of two apartments and two commercial spaces.
The white villa style building has a large sunny courtyard with water feature.
In 2022, the Wall Street Journal reported that Pastor purchased famed architect Frank Lloyd Wright’s only existing oceanfront home for $22 million.
The Carmel property is designed to look like a boat cutting through water.
Lloyd Wright originally designed the house, also known as ‘the cabin on the rocks’, for artist Della Walker around 1950.
Pastor is also currently undertaking three construction projects in the area, according to his real estate company’s website.
Its largest project is the Ulrika Plaza new-build development, which will include 3,900 square meters of mixed retail and residential space.
The site is also home to the JB Pastor Project, a 2,800-square-foot mixed-use, retail and residential project.
He is also renovating the Rocky Point Project. The site states: “Originally built in 1951, Rocky Point, located on Highway 1 between Carmel and Big Sur, offers one of the best views in the world.”
Rocky Point is one of the development projects Pastor is working on
The Ulrika Plaza project is a 2,600 square meter mixed-use, retail and residential development
And he owns notable buildings, including the L’Auberge Carmel Hotel, the Brown-Spaulding Building and the Eastwood Building.
The concerned business owner told SFGATE that “people are terrified.”
They added, “What’s going to happen when he spends so much money on the building, property taxes go up and rents go up and the only people who can afford it are chain stores?
“What’s going to happen to our mom-and-pop stores? What will happen to our sense of locality?’
They said the town is now divided into four camps: those who are too afraid to speak out because they are financially connected to Pastor, those who don’t speak out because they want to be financially connected to Pastor, those who do speak up and finally new residents who are ‘blissfully unaware’.
But not everyone is afraid of Pastor’s involvement in the city.
Real estate agent Tim Allen told SFGATE: ‘I think the focus was “Oh my god, he’s buying everything!” But the reality is that he owns very little compared to some families who have lived here for a while.
‘We need an influx. When he restores something in an area that is big or small, it shows that when people work together, instead of thinking one person is right or wrong, you can move everything in the right direction.”
He added: “I know Patrice, he’s like family, and he loves Carmel, loves it. And what he does is good for our community.”
The JB Pastor project is a 2,800 square meter mixed-use, retail and residential development currently in the planning stages
The most recent property Pastor purchased is La Rambla, a mixed residential and commercial property
The building has two apartments upstairs and two commercial spaces downstairs
Likewise, local conservation groups have expressed support for Pastor’s plans.
Karyl Hall, who helped found the Carmel Preservation Association, told local newspaper Carmel Pine Cone: “We are the luckiest people in the world that he (pastor) is coming in.”
“He cares about Carmel and wants Carmel to maintain its character… He has the money to come in and do what no one else can do.”
Pastor is infamous for his feud with the Crown Prince of Monaco that has been raging since 2021.
In 2021, an email from Prince Albert II’s press advisor to one of the Prince’s close friends was shared on an anonymous website, LesDossiersDuRocher.com, which published incriminating evidence about Monaco’s royal family.
The email read, “That octopus Pastor is everywhere! He has Monaco in his grasp. He’s gone crazy, he knows no bounds!’
Le Monde reported at the time: ‘This so-called ‘octopus’ appears to be multi-billionaire Patrice Pastor, a 49-year-old who has spent decades building and renting out buildings and apartments for small fortunes.
‘Proud and no frills, he is an unmistakable character in Monaco. “I’m not a nice guy,” he said. “I’m free, independent and I have money, so… Everything in the ‘Dossiers du Rocher’ is true, and everyone knows it! The truth is that I irritate them.”
Meanwhile, AirMail reported last year: ‘Patrice Pastor is described as the only man in Monaco more influential than its ruler.’
It added: ‘He is a smart, outspoken developer with striking glasses and Leonine hair, who long controlled Monaco’s property market and therefore essentially most of Monaco itself.’
Rivals describe him as competitive in the article, saying he wants to “win contracts, not for the money… but to crush everyone.”
DailyMail.com contacted Esperanza Carmel for comment.