Bill Koch lists 52-acre estate in Aspen for $125M

Billionaire Bill Koch has put his 16,600-square-foot log mansion on 52 acres in Aspen up for sale for $125 million. If it fetches that price, it would shatter the Colorado home price record.

The founder of Oxbow Carbon, an energy firm based in Florida, listed the Elk Mountain Lodge estate at 125 Rooney Circle, 10 miles from downtown Aspen, the Denver Business Journal reported.

Koch paid $26.5 million for the former event lodge in 2007. In 2014, he put it on the market for $89.9 million. A year later, he relisted it for $100 million, then dropped the price in 2016 to $60 million.

He then listed the wooden lodge for rent in 2022 and last year for $35,000 per night, or $300,000 per week, according to Zillow.

The main house, built in 1992 and remodeled in 2008, has seven bedrooms and eight bathrooms. It has his-and-hers offices, a movie theater and large, vaulted ceilings, several stone fireplaces and an in-ground hot tub with mountain views.

Seven other cabins on the estate add another 8,600 square feet, according to the listing.

The retreat has views of the Elk Mountain Range, with room for cross-country skiing, hiking, snowmobiling and fishing in its ponds.

Koch’s mansion would be impossible to build now because of size limits in that part of Pitkin County that cap homes at 9,250 square feet, according to listing agent Steven Shane. Other areas of the county limit construction of new homes to 5,750 square feet.

Homes around Aspen have set statewide price records. Last year, a home sold in the mountain ski town for $108 million, or $4,820 per square foot, shattering local and state records, according to the Aspen Times.

The asking price for the 25,277 square feet across Elk Mountain Lodge’s eight buildings is $125 million, or $4,945 per square foot, both values within the record-setting range.

Five homes sold in Aspen last year for between $55 million and $108 million, according to a report by broker Tim Estin of Aspen Snowmass Sotheby’s cited by the Business Journal.

Koch, a businessman, sailor and avid win collector, famously battled his brothers for payout after selling his stake in Koch Industries.

In June 2023, Koch listed 11 acres of land in Cape Cod, where he owns an estate, for $16 million. He owns a home in Palm Beach and two in Colorado, including the one in Aspen and one in Paonia.

— Dana Bartholomew