Bill Koch Sells Aspen Estate After Auction

Bill Koch found a buyer for his 52-acre Aspen compound.

The billionaire industrialist is selling his mountain estate, known as Elk Mountain Lodge, for more than $33.5 million after an auction conducted by Concierge Auctions ended last week, the Wall Street Journal reported.

The $33.5 million sale price is nearly 75 percent under its asking price of $125 million last year. Koch bought the home in 2007 for $26.5 million and converted what was an event venue into his private residence. He went on to add 31 acres to the property at 125 Rooney Circle.

Koch has been trying to sell the home for more than a decade. It hit the market in 2015 for $100 million and the price dropped to $80 million. In 2020, he sold the 31-acre parcel for $14.5 million but kept the home and the original 52 acres. In 2023 and 2024, he rented the lodge out at an asking rent of $300,000 per week. Early last year, he tested the market again by listing the estate for $125 million.

Koch said this spring that he was opting to sell the estate in an auction with a starting price of $99 million, The Real Deal previously reported. The sale is slated to close in a month. Steven Shane of Compass has the listing.

Elk Mountain Lodge consists of a 16,600-square-foot eight-bedroom main lodge as well as seven other cabins, including one spanning 3,100 square feet that serves as a gym. The main house has two offices, two hot tubs and temperature-controlled wine storage.

Koch and his wife Bridget Rooney Koch are downsizing now that they’re empty nesters. “[We] looked at the strong housing market and figured it was time to let someone else enjoy it,” Koch told the Wall Street Journal when the home hit the market early last year for $125 million. The couple still has homes in New York, Palm Beach and Cape Cod as well as a ranch in Paonia, Colorado, about two hours west.

Aspen’s real estate market has seen its first post-Covid downturn in recent months. The first half of the year saw a 44 percent decline in the number of sales compared to the same period last year. Transactions above $10 million fell even further, tumbling 48 percent year over year, according to the Wall Street Journal.

— Chris Malone Méndez