AN EPIC SPENDING SPREE
The more things change the more they stay the same. And as usual, it’s all about the all mighty dollar here in A-town. That’s unless you are a local and you couldn’t give two shits about anything except epic powder days and off-season excursions.
But those who think they own the town - actually do. Ron Garfield, Andy Hecht,
Andy’s son Nikos, and their cronies are gobbling up property faster than Ajax can be skied off by mid-morning. The group just sucked up the La Fave Block building on Cooper Avenue and Hunter Street for a mere $14.6 million from the Stein Eriksen Family Partnership. Add that to their growing list of other properties - they also own the North Mill Street Commercial Center, the Red Onion building and Cooper Street Pier. There’s probably more but it’s hard to keep track.
The investors won’t say what their plans are for some of the real estate they own but surely it’s to either redevelop it or jack up the rents since all told, they’ve spent tens of millions of dollars thus far. And as shrewd businessmen, they most certainly are in it for the money and not to “preserve” Aspen.
We know what their plans are for Cooper Street and Red Onion. They are suing the city for rejecting their proposal to turn Cooper Street into luxury condos and probably a high-end retail store - because we don’t have enough of those around. The Red Onion is supposedly being turned into Junk, some sort of organic fast-food restaurant/nightclub that a Las Vegas nightclub owner, who incidentally owns the Playboy Club in the Palms Casino, is about to sign a lease on.
Garfield, Hecht et. al. aren’t the only ones who think dumping millions into Aspen commercial real estate is a wise investment. Rumors are floating around that Michigan businessman Linden Nelson has the 15,000-square-foot swath of property at Hyman Avenue and Hunter Street under contract for $39 million. He also has his sights set on the Crystal Palace building for another $30 million or so. Chump change.
What they think they are able to do with these properties is going to be the fun part. It doesn’t appear that the current administration sitting in City Hall is a big fan of big money building big buildings. The City Council just last week shot down a proposal to redevelop the Wienerstube building. They also killed the Lodge at Aspen Mountain, a large hotel at the base of Aspen Mountain. And there are others in the past nine months.
The last thing the citizen’s of Aspen need is to shoulder the burden of these guys making money on way over-priced property. It’s their own damn fault for overpaying. We don’t want to hear their buildings have to be rebuilt another 20 feet higher so they can get every dime out of them.
Good luck, boys. The council should give ‘em hell.
