The Forest Service sold their five lots, totaling one acre, in Aspen's West End to three separate buyers for a combined $7.01 million in an auction yesterday morning at the Aspen Institute. The Forest Service had been hoping to get around $2 million for each of the five lots, but ended up agreeing to sell them at what realtor Tim Estin of the Estin Report considered a "solid discount." After the bidding, the Forest Service were able to haggle one of the buyers, Diane Ducote from New Orleans, up to $3 million from $2.85 million for lots one and two on the corner of West Smuggler and North 8th Street, but the other two buyers, who refused to divulge their names, did not budge on their offers of $1.14 million for lot three and $2.86 million for lots four and five.
Ms. Ducote and her husband, a developer, had owned a home in Aspen for 16 years at one point, and plan to build a single family home on the two lots, as their son lives full-time in town.
· Forest Service parcels fetch $7.01 million at auction [Aspen Daily News]