CARMEL-BY-THE-SEA, Calif. — People call it "The Pit."

It's a massive, unsightly hole in the ground — the site of a construction project in downtown Carmel-by-the-Sea whose previous owners ran out of money six years ago, leaving behind nothing but concrete, rebar and hard feelings.

In 2020, The Pit was purchased by Patrice Pastor, a billionaire real estate developer from the tiny European nation of Monaco, for $9 million.

Last year, he plopped down $22 million for a much prettier property: Cabin on the Rocks, the only oceanfront home ever designed by famed architect Frank Lloyd Wright.

And in mid-June, he got approval from the California Coastal Commission for his "visionary plan" to restore public access at Rocky Point, a seaside property he bought for $8 million in nearby Big Sur with views of the iconic Bixby Bridge.

Pastor has been on a buying spree in and around Carmel-by-the-Sea, dropping more than $100 million on at least 18 properties over the last decade. So much so that his presence has become a source of intrigue, and for some, downright suspicion, in this moneyed one-square-mile town of 3,200 people.

Pastor bought the Hog's Breath Building, the site of the pub once owned by actor Clint Eastwood. He bought the L'Auberge Carmel hotel, which houses a Michelin star restaurant. He snapped up the Der Ling building, a 1924 shop, done in fairytale-style architecture next to a stone pathway leading to a hidden garden.

"When someone comes in with so much money and can use that money for influence on so many things, that's … scary in any community," said Dee Borsella, who owns a custom pajama shop across from The Pit. "Every person has the right to do this. But why is he picking Carmel?"

Pastor is the scion of a powerful real estate family that built much of mega-rich Monaco, a dense, one-square-mile nation on the French Riviera.

He says he first came to Carmel-by-the-Sea at age 7 during a trip with his father, and that he had never seen his dad more relaxed. The memory stuck with him. He now owns multiple homes in town and visits several times a year.

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