As big as a mountain: 6-story Vail mansion sells for record price

A biotech exec’s purchase of a 15Ksf home — with 2 elevators — is most expensive deal closed in the ski resort town

Buyer Kevin Ness
Buyer Kevin Ness

The pandemic has not put a dent in the Colorado luxury market, in fact, it may have propelled more sales. And the latest is a new record.

A biotech executive paid $57.3 million for a six-story Vail mansion — complete with two elevators — in the ski resort town.

Kevin Ness, CEO of the biotech company Inscripta, bought the 15,000-square-foot home from a limited liability company tied to Mexican businessman Alejandro Rojas, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Rojas bought the property for $14.5 million in 2014, and spent three years rebuilding it and dividing it into two apartments.

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On an acre near the center of town, the home has 11 bedrooms, two pools, two hot tubs, and a theater between the two units. The units have numerous terraces to take advantage of the mountain views.

The sale shatters the old record set in 2017, when Ann Smead sold her property for $28.7 million.

Ness said he bought the property as a “generational” family home, according to the Journal, attracted to it in part because its two-unit design will give guests more privacy. He said Rojas only planned to sell one unit, but ultimately agreed to sell both. Ness and his family moved from Boulder.

The Colorado property market has been hot since the pandemic hit. In May, former New York City mayor and presidential candidate Michael Bloomberg paid $44 million for a 4,600-acre estate in Meeker, about 150 miles northwest of Vail.

Later that month, natural gas mogul Charif Souki listed his Aspen-area 813-acre estate for $220 million. If it closes at that price ,it would be the most expensive home sale ever recorded in the country. [WSJ]Dennis Lynch