buy the SKY (hotel)
The 90-room Sky Hotel near the base of Aspen Mountain is for sale.
The Sky’s Washington, D.C.-based ownership group, Northridge Capital, bought the property in March 2001 for $14.1 million, according to Pitkin County records. There’s no particular reason it’s trying to sell, said Sky executives.
The hotel is not having financial challenges nor is the attempted sales a result of tough economic times, said Sky General Manager Corey Enlowe, who added that the owners have held the hotel longer than they normally would a real estate asset.
There is no list price on the Sky, said Enlowe. “They’re just doing a call for offers.”
The Pitkin County assessor currently values the property at $30.5 million.
Eastdil Secured, a real estate investment banking company, is handling the sales effort. Enlowe said the property is being marketed through the company’s internal network. A call to Eastdil wasn’t returned on Monday.
Stephanie Smith/Aspen Daily News
Northridge Capital is a real estate asset management firm that invests in assets on behalf of investors, according to its website. When it bought the Durant Ave. property, the hotel was called the Aspen Club Lodge. The owners partnered with The Kimpton Group of San Francisco, which runs the hotel, on a $1.8 million renovation to turn it into “an upscale, European style boutique hotel,” according to Northridge’s website.
The hip, alternative hotel which sits across Spring Street from the five-star Little Nell reopened in June 2002 as the Sky, and soon became a scene for après-ski and poolside partying.
About three years later the owners proposed a redevelopment of the property that would have doubled the building’s 50,600 square feet and added 10 free-market condos, but kept the same number of rooms — 90. They wanted a more upscale facility with larger hotel rooms and underground parking. Neighboring properties opposed the plan, and it was shot down by a tie vote of Aspen Planning and Zoning Commission in February 2006.
The property has been on the market for about a month now, Enlowe said, and he doesn’t expect anything to change operationally should it sell.
“That’s how we’ve communicated with the owners, with the employees,” he said. “It’s just purely a kind of behind-the-scenes transaction that I’ve seen done at several hotels.”
A few blocks away, the 179-room St. Regis Hotel is also for sale. It was put on the market in November 2008. A team from Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide, which owns and manages the property, is handling the sales effort, according to a hotel representative
