There’s an Aspen property listed for $105M. Is Vail ready to hit those heights?

There’s a property on the market in Aspen with an asking price of $105 million. Could there be a nine-figure property in Vail or the Vail Valley?

The short answer is no — at least for now.

The Aspen property, at 41 Popcorn Lane, isn’t the first listing in that area to have a nine-figure asking price. Time will tell if a potential buyer pays that much.

The Aspen Snowmass office of Sotheby’s International Realty has the listing for the property. The parcel has two homes, a main house and a guest house, one on either side of the Roaring Fork River. The parcel totals 8.4 acres.

Chris Klug is the broker and a partner in the office. Klug said the property’s asking price reflects several elements.

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Roaring Fork River frontage is rare, Klug said. In addition, the property can’t be duplicated under current Aspen regulations. Property in Aspen and Pitkin County is now limited to a total of 15,000 square feet of residential space on a parcel. Guest houses are limited to 1,000 square feet — this guest house is far larger.

Klug added that this property is ready for occupancy, something that commands a premium in the market.

“Buyers are somewhat averse today to a project,” Klug said, adding that finding materials and contractors is time-consuming, as is the process of receiving all the needed permits. All of that adds expense to any real estate purchase.

‘At some point in time, we’re going to hit that range’

Craig Denton of Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Colorado Properties is a longtime veteran of the local real estate business. Denton at the moment has a $34 million listing on Mill Creek Circle in Vail. It’s expected that whoever buys that home will tear it down and replace it with a new one. By the time a new home is finished, the whole deal will approach $50 million, Denton said.

There’s also a new home in Vail’s Spraddle Creek area currently on the market for $40 million.

“I think we can approach” the nine-figure mark in the Vail Valley, Denton said. “At some point in time, we’re going to hit that range.”

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Ron Byrne, founder of the company that bears his name, is another longtime veteran of the local market. Byrne keeps a close eye on the luxury market throughout Eagle County. Byrne said “a couple” of people have bought property, mostly agricultural property, then invested a lot of time and money on upgrades.

Those rare properties when finished may be worth close to a nine-figure price, Byrne said, but the owners aren’t selling.

When expensive property does change hands, Byrne said the buyers don’t seek publicity about the deals. That’s a difference between the Vail and Aspen markets, he said.

“They don’t want anyone to know they’re here,” Byrne said, adding that such buyers will often put their property into blind trusts.

The Vail Valley market doesn’t yet have property priced in the range of Aspen’s most exclusive parcels. The residential record for the valley remains a purchase from 2020: $57.2 million for a duplex on Vail Road.

The Aspen market has seen two sales of more than $60 million, one of which, sold “off-market,” is essentially across the street from the Popcorn Lane property.

Denton said high-end sales in resort areas get noticed. Resorts including Vail, Sun Valley, Idaho, Jackson, Wyoming, Aspen and Telluride are internationally known. If the Popcorn Lane property sells for a nine-figure sum. People will notice, no matter where they’re looking.

“There are a lot of people with a lot of money out there,” he said.