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L.A.-based company pays $37.5 million for Surfrider Hotel overlooking the Pacific, one of highest prices paid per room in Southern California
Kate King
11.9.25
Chrome Hearts, the Los Angeles-based luxury brand known for its cultlike following and extravagantly priced merchandise, is now paying top dollar to get into the Southern California hospitality business.
The company last month bought the Surfrider Hotel in Malibu, a 20-room boutique property perched above the Pacific Coast Highway for $37.5 million.
That price amounts to more than $1.8 million a room, making it one of the most expensive hotel sales on a per-key basis in Southern California, according to CoStar Group’s data going back to 2015.
Chrome Hearts clothing has been worn by celebrities ranging from Timothée Chalamet and Rihanna to the late German fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld. The company was co-founded in 1988 by motorcycle enthusiast Richard Stark, and the brand infuses its leather clothing, accessories, jewelry, home goods and furnishings with a biker-inspired attitude.
It manufactures most of its products in Los Angeles and sells them primarily from its worldwide fleet of 36 bricks-and-mortar stores. Only a few products are offered on its website. Other e-commerce sites sell Chrome Hearts clothing like T-shirts, which go for more than $700, and sweatshirts that top $1,400.
The Surfrider was built in 1953 as a motor inn and was later transformed to resemble a California beach house’s living room. Rooms are available for about $400 a night. Past guests have included soccer legend David Beckham and actress Margot Robbie.
Laurie Lynn Stark, the company’s co-owner and wife of Richard, said she plans to bring Chrome Hearts’ sense of style and focus on privacy to the property while preserving the hotel’s surfer-focused legacy.