The 'octopus' billionaire buying up Carmel: Patrice Pastor's many properties in small seaside town

• The Monaco mogul has tightened his grip on the historic Californian village after snapping up yet another iconic building
• Pastor and his companies have spent nearly $100 million on properties in a village of just 3,200 people
• Dailymail.com can now reveal the full extent of his control as locals fear they will be driven out 

The tightening grip exerted on a historic California village by a multi-billionaire property magnate dubbed ‘The Octopus’ has been laid out for the first time.

Monaco real estate titan Patrice Pastor has bought up at least 15 iconic properties in the seaside village of Carmel, leaving locals ‘terrified they are handing over our town to one person who’s doing what he wants to do.’

His $7.5million purchase of the La Rambla building last month is the latest in a series of deals landed by the 51-year-old since he and his company Esperanza Carmel set their sights on the village ten years ago.

Police were called after a fist-fight broke out between a small business owner and a village administrator in October after Pastor demanded permission to override planning laws so he could move a historic wall.

And locals fear that soaring prices will drive them out of a village where the population has already fallen from 3,700 to 3,200 since 2010.

‘What’s going to happen as he spends so much money on the building, the property tax goes up and the rents go up and the only people who can afford it are chain stores?’ one business owner told SFGATE.

His $7.5million purchase of the La Rambla building last month is the latest in a series of deals landed by the 51-year-old

‘What’s going to happen to our mom-and-pop shops? What’s going to happen to our local feel?’

Pastor who is a fourth-generation property magnate is notorious for his feud with Monaco’s crown prince which 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 said: ‘That octopus Pastor is everywhere! He has gotten his hooks into Monaco. He has gone mad, he has no limits!’

Le Monde reported at the time: ‘This supposed ‘octopus’ appears to be multi-billionaire Patrice Pastor, a 49-year-old who for decades constructed and rented buildings and apartments for small fortunes.

‘Proud and with 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.”

The village in Monterey County has long been a favorite hangout for Hollywood’s elite and was famously presided over by Clint Eastwood as mayor in the 1980s.

Brad Pitt bought a $40 million home there in 2022 and other residents have included Michael Nesmith, Doris Day, Betty White and James Ellroy.

He paid $4.2m in 2018 for the Der Ling Building on Ocean Ave between Dolores and Lincoln

He bought renowned architect Frank Lloyd Wright’s only ocean front home for $22 million

The $9 million Ulrika Plaza project will create 9,000 square feet of retail space

The Rocky Point project on Highway 1 between Carmel and Big Sur

Pastor (left) and his wife (second left) in 2015 at the Monaco Foundation dinner in London with Marc Lecourt and his wife

Pastor has fought a long-running feed with Monaco’s Prince Albert, seen here at his wedding to Princess Charlene in 2011

The tycoon paid $13.9 million for the L¿Auberge Carmel Hotel on Monte Verde Street

But Eastwood’s former Hogs Head bar and the building it once housed are now part of the Pastor empire along with more than a dozen other iconic properties.

In 2022, the Wall Street Journal reported that Pastor bought renowned architect Frank Lloyd Wright’s only existing ocean front home for $22 million.

His largest project is the Ulrika Plaza new build development, which will be a 42,000 square foot mixed-use, retail and residential space.

The JB Pastor Project which will be a 30,000 square foot mixed-use, retail and residential.

He is also renovating the Rocky Point Project. His website says: ‘Originally constructed in 1951, located on Highway 1 between Carmel and Big Sur, Rocky Point enjoys one of the best views in the world.’

Other notable buildings including L’Auberge Carmel Hotel, the Brown-Spaulding Building and Forge in the Forest.

In all he is thought to have spent nearly $100 million on properties in the village 75 miles south of San Jose.

But he has his supporters including the Carmel Preservation Association and real estate agent Tim Allen.

‘I think the focus has been on ‘Oh my gosh, he’s buying up everything!’ But the reality is he owns very little compared to some families that have been here for a while,’ Allen told SFGate.

‘We need an influx. If he’s restoring something in an area that’s big or small, it shows that if people work together, as opposed to thinking someone’s right or wrong, then 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’s doing is good for our community.’

The village left an indelible impression on the Monegasque mogul when he first came as a child and he now visits ‘three or four times a year’, according to company representative Christopher Mitchell.

‘He knew that he would one day come to live here,’ he added.

The luxury Carmel Beach Hotel is one of the few within walking distance of the beach

The Forge in the Forest is an 8,000 square foot restaurant in downtown Carmel

The Eastwood Building once once owned by movie star Clint Eastwood and rumored to be the reason he ran for Mayor of Carmel in 1986

The Hogs Breath bar was also previously owned by the Hollywood great

But some residents recently took a trip to see at the family’s work in Monaco where his father Victor Pastor was for decades ‘essentially the developer-in-chief for the entire principality’.

One came back describing it as looking like a ‘concrete beehive.’

‘Now is the time to stand up,’ he added.

‘If not now, then we’re going to look and feel incredibly different in five years.’

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