Former Enron Chairman Kenneth Lay, Wife Get $10 Million for Aspen Cottage
Wednesday February 13, 2:54 pm Eastern Time
ASPEN, Colo. (AP) -- Former Enron chairman Kenneth Lay and his wife have sold their Aspen house for $10 million, fetching the highest price per square foot that real estate agents can remember in this haven for the rich and famous.
The Lays, who also sold a vacant lot and have two other Aspen properties for sale, paid $1.9 million in 1991 for the 3,015-square-foot cottage on a three-acre lot, part of which fronts the Roaring Fork River.
The 43-year-old, three-bedroom house was extensively renovated in 1993 and is located near downtown with views of Aspen Mountain. It appears modest from the outside, but Saslove said he was not surprised by the sale price because of its location.
A limited liability company, Roaring Fork I LLC, paid Lay and his wife, Linda, the equivalent of $3,330 a square foot, according to the warranty deed made public Tuesday.
The only person listed for the company was Bradley P. Bell of Los Angeles. The Lays' broker, Joshua Saslove, refused on Wednesday to release any details about Bell.
``The highest price any home has ever sold here before is around $1,260 a square foot,'' real estate broker Heidi Houston said.
The Lays sold the secluded home last week without formally listing it with Saslove. The deal was bittersweet for the couple, Saslove said.
``It was their personal family retreat, and they were very apprehensive about having to sell it because they have spent so much time there,'' Saslove said. ``They had children baptized there. They held weddings there. They buried their pets in the back yard.''
The Lays have said they are struggling financially after the collapse of Houston-based Enron, embroiled in the country's largest ever bankruptcy. Congress and federal officials are investigating the company's collapse amid questions about its accounting practices.
The Lays also sold an undeveloped lot at the foot of Red Mountain for $2.1 million. The property, which sits on a bluff above the Aspen Art Museum, had been listed for $2.95 million. |
