While as a city Aspen may be doing its damndest to lower its energy use and use more renewables, the titans of oil and gas still have their figures deep in the pie of the town's real estate market. An entity reportedly connected to the family of Charif Souki has bought Woody Creek's Aspen Valley Ranch for $27 million, making it the second biggest sale after Jigsaw Ranch was purchased in June for $41 million by an entity allegedly connected to Connecticut hedge fund manager George Zimmerman. The ranch was purchased from Alpine Bank, which had taken over the property when Arcapita Investment Holdings, a luxury development group based in the oil-rich Persian Gulf kingdom of Bahrain, went bankrupt in 2012. The 813-acre ranch's final sale price is a far cry from the $88 million the group had originally listed the home at in 2008, although they did have approvals to build 14 luxury homes on the property. The main home is a 5 bed, 5 bath joint and comes with a ranch manager's cabin, a new horse barn, along with many pastures and water rights.
Souki, who has several grown children who live in the area, has been a long-time Aspen fixture. He opened one of Aspen's longest-running gourmet restaurants, Mezzaluna, way back in 1987, and expanded his commercial holdings last November by buying the Pomeroy Sports building for $7.5 million and the Mason Morse building, including the realtor itself, for $6.3 million. Souki earned his biggest fortunes after positioning Cheniere Energy to be the only company allowed to export natural gas from the US.
· Woody Creek ranch sells for $27 million [The Aspen Skinny]
· Charif Souki archives [Curbed Ski]
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