Industry News
Aspen, CO, just quietly traded its most expensive property ever sold in an off-market transaction on September 5, 2023. The ski-in/ski-out mansion at 1001 Ute Avenue traded for a record-breaking total of $76 million. It was exchanged in a somewhat unusual cash and property deal, with $51 million exchanged in cash and a property in Aspen’s Little Cloud subdivision valued at $25 million swapping hands. The previous price record for real estate in Aspen was the 2021 purchase of a 21,477 square feet home purchased by Canadian Patrick Dovigi, founder and CEO of GFL Environmental, for $72.5 million.
According to the Wall Street Journal, the vendor of the mansion at 1001 Ute Avenue was real-estate developer Leathem Stearn, while the new proud owner is Terry Taylor of Florida, who owns one of America’s largest privately owned car dealership groups. Taylor is currently selling his property at Roaring Fork River for an asking price of $105 million.
The original asking price for Stearn’s ski-in mansion had been $75 million in 2020 when the house first went on the market. It was subsequently raised to $95 million when re-listed in early 2023.
The sprawling ski-house is spread out across four floors, totaling more than 20,000 square feet, and boasts seven bedrooms, seven bathrooms, six half-baths, a 60-foot heated indoor lap pool, wine tasting room, gym, bowling alley, cinema, wet bar and a six-car garage with turntable.
The property is an accumulation of superlatives with no expense spared, from water features to frameless windows, a rotating breakfast nook, and super-sized bedrooms with massive ensuites. A video from 2021 by Architectural Digest takes you on an extensive tour of this architectural marvel.
The house has been subject to some controversy since it was built in 2019 by Stearn. It was subject to bankruptcy filings, survived receivership, and faced regulatory issues with the local county. It would not be able to be reproduced anymore after Pitkin County changed the land use code to a maximum of 15,000 square feet and is anticipated to be decreased to a recommended 8,750 square feet within the next year.
The latest controversy arose with the sale of the property when Christie’s real estate agent, Stephanie Lewis, filed a civil complaint against the vendor for payment of brokerage fee. It appears Lewis has not been paid a commission as customary for her services in brokering the deal. The real estate agent is suing for around $1.72 million in commission after refusing an offer by Stearn for $225,000. Stearn and his legal team maintain that Lewis had a limited role in the transaction and that their request had reflected that.
“I am proud to have sold the most expensive home in Aspen,” Lewis said in a statement given to the Aspen Daily News, “It is disheartening that the seller of the $76m home is refusing to honor his contractual obligations and pay the commissions due.”
The lawsuit sheds some color on the unusual property deal as there was contention between Stearn and Taylor on the value of the Little Cloud property, which Taylor deemed worth $35 million. Lewis was also advising on the potential value of the Little Cloud property. Ultimately, negotiations between the buyer and seller became a stalemate, and Lewis showed the property to other High Net Worth Individuals. Finally, Taylor and Stearn agreed, excluding Lewis from the final negotiations and offering her a paltry $175,000 and later $225,000 for her efforts, when typically real estate agent fees range from 2-3% in this segment.
Interestingly, if the Little Cloud property is worth closer to $35 million, that would bring the value of the 1001 Ute Avenue deal to $86 million. Lewis’s lawyers allege that the parties settled for the $25 million valuation in part to avoid paying excessive brokerage fees. Either way, it is a new record for Aspen, be it $76 million or $86 million, no small change by any standard.
