{"id":2451013,"date":"2019-11-12T22:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-11-13T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/?p=315883"},"modified":"2019-11-12T22:00:00","modified_gmt":"2019-11-13T05:00:00","slug":"aspen-advances-10m-purchase-of-centennial-deed-restrictions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/local-news\/aspen-advances-10m-purchase-of-centennial-deed-restrictions\/","title":{"rendered":"Aspen advances $10M purchase of Centennial deed restrictions"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The city is moving forward with its pursuit to buy the deed restrictions on 148 apartments at Centennial<\/a> for $10 million.<\/p>\n

Aspen City Council on Tuesday voted that the municipal government should enter into a purchase agreement with the owner of the complex, Centennial Aspen II Limited Partnership.<\/p>\n

The agreement gives both sides of the deal the opportunity to walk away without cause during the 30-day diligence period.<\/p>\n

That gives city officials time to research the complicated approvals associated with the property and its deed restrictions, City Attorney Jim True told council.<\/p>\n

How much the owner can charge for rent expires at the end of the 21st year after the death of the last member of the Pitkin Board of County Commissioners who approved the development, which is 72-year-old Old Snowmass resident Michael Kinsley.<\/p>\n

The city\u2019s interest in buying those deed restrictions in perpetuity was prompted by the owner shopping the property to prospective buyers, officials said.<\/p>\n

Sam Brown, general partner of the limited partnership, said Monday that his partners are motivated to sell so they can focus on other real estate opportunities in Aspen.<\/p>\n

They hired a commercial broker, which marketed the property and received numerous offers, with the deed restrictions in place and without them in what could be 40-plus years from now.<\/p>\n

Once the deed restrictions are removed, the owner of the property could develop it into free-market housing with far fewer affordable housing units.<\/p>\n

Several years ago, Brown offered the city the chance to buy the property for $60 million, and recently reduced that to $50 million, but the municipal government declined.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had a number of offers, many of which that were over what I offered to the city,\u201d Brown said, adding that as the developer of the affordable housing apartments almost four decades ago, he believes they should remain in local control. \u201cI think it\u2019s the right thing to do for the city to buy this.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brown added that he does have a back-up offer on the table from a company that specializes in owning and managing affordable housing for more than the deal with the city.<\/p>\n

City officials have said it\u2019s difficult to put a value on a deed restriction now or into the future.<\/p>\n

Councilman Ward Hauenstein asked rhetorically in Tuesday\u2019s meeting how much it would cost to replace 148 affordable housing units.<\/p>\n

\u201cA value is whatever someone is willing to pay for it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Mick Ireland, Aspen resident and former mayor and county commissioner, advised council to not buy the deed restrictions for the inflated price of $10 million without a valuation or an appraisal being done.<\/p>\n

He also noted that in the city\u2019s negotiations with the limited partnership, the price keeps going down.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou are making progress, why stop? Ireland said.<\/p>\n

Councilwoman Rachel Richards said she supported the purchase agreement because it allows a month for the city to fully research the deal and what it means in protecting a significant portion of the affordable housing stock.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a problem that has been looming out there,\u201d she said of the impending expiration of the deed restrictions, adding that Kinsley wrote a letter to the editor<\/a> in support of the city\u2019s purchase. \u201cIt\u2019s important to do our due diligence.\u201d<\/p>\n

csackariason@aspentimes.com<\/a><\/p>\n

via:: The Aspen Times<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The city is moving forward with its pursuit to buy the deed restrictions on 148 apartments at Centennial for $10 million. Aspen City Council on Tuesday voted that the municipal government should enter into a purchase agreement with the owner of the complex, Centennial Aspen II Limited Partnership. The agreement gives both sides of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2451013","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-local-news"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-19 06:53:04","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSPN The Valley's Quality Rock","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2451013","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2451013"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2451013\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2451013"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2451013"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2451013"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}