The St. Regis Aspen Resort will not go public as a single-asset REIT after all, at least not any time soon.
Elevated Returns, an investment and asset management company, had backed the real estate investment trust, which was to be called Aspen REIT. It made the announcement about the first of its kind REIT earlier this month. Now, Elevated says it is postponing the IPO despite “strong [interest] among international and high-net-worth investors,” according to company CEO Stephane De Baets. Elevated owns the Aspen, Colorado, resort.
In a statement, De Baets said Aspen REIT pulled the offering “in order to retool our crowd funding distribution channel in order to create a seamless conversion of the robust traffic to our site.”
That could mean that the REIT was not able to turn traffic to its website from smaller potential investors into real investment commitments.
The REIT sought to raise around $33.5 million with the IPO, selling off a 49 percent stake in the St. Regis on the New York Stock Exchange. Around 1.675 million shares would be offered at $20 a piece with an annual dividend of 29 cents per share, the company said. Elevated Returns would have retained 51 percent interest.
The St. Regis has 179 units between two five-story buildings. Elevated Returns purchased it in 2010 in a joint venture with De Baets’ OptAsia Capital for $70 million and has invested $50 million in renovations since then. It refinanced with a $100 million mortgage from KSL Partners in 2015.
Elevated Returns also owns the Chef’s Club group of restaurants in New York and Aspen, along with the Aldea restaurant in New York. The firm was involved in Thai billionaire Thosapong Jaruthavee’s 2015 acquisition, then 2017 sale of an 80 percent stake in the Sunset Tower in Los Angeles.