If you ask John Sarpa what he\u2019s most proud of in his time developing Aspen, the answer is not building hundreds of thousands of square feet at the base of Aspen Mountain.<\/p>\n
\u201cSomeone asked me the other day, \u2018What is the most important thing you have done in a positive way to have an impact on Aspen?\u2019\u201d Sarpa said. \u201cI said it was the negotiation and having the ability to co-chair the process for the rezoning of the Aspen Meadows<\/a> campus.\u201d<\/p>\n When he was representing developer Mohamed Hadid in a land deal in 1984, 80 acres at the Aspen Meadows were part of the pickup in a foreclosure.<\/p>\n The nonprofits there \u2014 Aspen Center for Physics, the Aspen Institute, the Music Associates of Aspen and the International Design Conference \u2014 were looking for places to move, and had been at odds in trying to save the languishing property, Sarpa recalled.<\/p>\n He was summoned from his Washington, D.C., office by then-Institute chairman R.O. Anderson<\/a> to the Meadows shortly after Hadid\u2019s group assumed ownership of the land.<\/p>\n Anderson had all the players from those nonprofits in the room when Sarpa arrived.<\/p>\n \u201cI noticed there was a fair amount of animosity among them, and an hour or two into the meeting someone pulled up the Aspen Idea book. \u2018Do you even know what this is?\u2019 I said, \u2018No sir, I do not,\u2019\u201d Sarpa recalled. \u201cHe threw it across the table and said, \u2018you read that damn book and come back tomorrow and we\u2019ll talk\u2019 and we ended the meeting right there.<\/p>\n \u201cI took my little book home and I read it and I went, \u2018Oh my God\u2019 because what they had obviously was already there and it was in jeopardy,\u201d Sarpa said. \u201cBut overnight I sure got it. It was like the lights went on and this was a whole lot more than a piece of real estate.\u201d<\/p>\n He convinced Hadid and his investors, who planned on building high-density homes there, to give the land back to the nonprofits for $10.<\/p>\n They worked together, compromised and got the city to approve what is known as the Aspen Meadows Specially Planned Area.<\/p>\n \u201cI certainly had a feeling it was important, but then you watch each one of those organizations blossom, raise money separately and all kinds of things which they couldn\u2019t have done without that approval,\u201d Sarpa said. \u201cI watched each of them build their buildings and flourish.<\/p>\n \u201cIt felt great to see that, knowing I had a small part in it.\u201d<\/p>\n Living out the Aspen Idea decades later, Sarpa got involved in a financially failing Aspen Valley Hospital<\/a> in 2002.<\/p>\n It was on the brink of the state attorney general\u2019s office taking over, and he and two other newly elected board members were successful in turning over the administration and getting new leadership.<\/p>\n Sarpa\u2019s intimate involvement with the hospital, despite prior to 2002 knowing nothing about the health care industry, led him to be the interim CEO in 2013.<\/p>\n Concurrently, he helped lead the fundraising and expansion approval of AVH.<\/p>\n He currently serves as chairman of the Aspen Valley Hospital Foundation, which has $10 million left to raise of its $60 million goal to fund the 230,000-square-foot hospital.<\/p>\n