{"id":2454967,"date":"2020-02-24T23:44:00","date_gmt":"2020-02-25T06:44:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/news\/aspen-appraiser-mark-hunts-buying-binge-will-trigger-chain-reaction\/"},"modified":"2020-02-25T08:06:09","modified_gmt":"2020-02-25T15:06:09","slug":"aspen-appraiser-mark-hunts-buying-binge-will-trigger-chain-reaction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/local-news\/aspen-appraiser-mark-hunts-buying-binge-will-trigger-chain-reaction\/","title":{"rendered":"Aspen appraiser: Mark Hunt\u2019s buying binge will trigger chain reaction"},"content":{"rendered":"
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At the clip developer Mark Hunt is buying up commercial property in downtown Aspen, it is nearly inevitable that a 2016 city ordinance aimed at slowing down the influx of chain retailers will be tested.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s what a veteran property appraiser told a crowd of roughly 400 people gathered last week at the Aspen Board of Realtors\u2019 annual market update luncheon at The St. Regis Aspen Resort.<\/p>\n

\u201cDon\u2019t be surprised if there is litigation coming down the pike in the next couple of years, as that conditional-use process gets tested,\u201d said Randy Gold of Aspen Appraisal Group.<\/p>\n

Gold\u2019s company\u2019s background includes 24,000 appraisals in the upper Roaring Fork Valley for 42 years, he said.<\/p>\n

During the past decade, Hunt has acquired approximately $160 million in commercial property in downtown Aspen, and capped off the 2010s with the October purchase <\/a>of two retail spaces and two deed-restricted housing units, all located in the Isis Theatre building at 406 E. Hopkins Ave., for $13.05 million. The building\u2019s four movie theaters were not part of the deal.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the craziest sales (in 2019), in my mind, was the sale of the Isis Theatre space at $3,400 a square foot,\u201d Gold said.<\/p>\n

Also in October, another limited liability company under Hunt\u2019s control bought a 6,150-square-foot building at 516 E. Hyman Ave. for $8 million.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe numbers that he\u2019s paid for these properties is going to force him to charge very, very high rents, so who can pay that stuff?\u201d Gold said. \u201cWell, it\u2019s going to be mostly, not totally, but mostly international and national retailers that are going to be able to afford $175 or $200 a square foot in rent.\u201d<\/p>\n

Enter Ordinance 106, adopted by Aspen City Council 2016 in response to community sentiment that ultra-luxury retailers were over-running downtown\u2019s commercial landscape.<\/p>\n

While lacking the teeth council originally envisioned, the ordinance applies to future development downtown.<\/p>\n

Under the ordinance, future stores in downtown Aspen meeting the chain criteria \u2014 11 or more locations that share standardized merchandise, services, signs, facades and other elements \u2014 would undergo a conditional land-use review by the Planning and Zoning Commission in the event of a redevelopment.<\/p>\n

The ordinance does not apply to existing buildings. Any downtown Aspen building, however, that is torn down and replaced would be subject to the ordinance, as well as any structure that expands its net leasable space by 500 square feet or its floor area by 250 square feet.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow, when you tear down a building and build a new one, it\u2019s still allowed but it\u2019s a conditional use,\u201d Gold said. \u201cSo, I can totally see a conflict as Mark is forced to find tenants that can pay big rents since he\u2019s paid big prices for the property, and there\u2019s going to be a conflict in getting approval for these national formula or international chains to come in here and get approval from City Council.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hunt did not respond Monday to questions regarding Gold\u2019s statement, but in an email Friday he said Gold was off base about his remarks that he \u201creportedly\u201d has two \u201cbillionaire angels\u201d who are silent investors behind his purchases.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is not accurate,\u201d he said. \u201cI wish it were true.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hunt started off the new decade this year by buying a majority of the condominium-ized Wheeler Square building on East Hyman Avenue for $10.6 million. He confirmed that he expects to close on the purchase of the rest of the building in March.<\/p>\n

Commercial property values have been skewed, according to Gold, because of the some purchases are out of line with the market.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe high prices paid by these guys are driving values for a lot of downtown commercial property,\u201d he said. \u201cNot only is it emboldening sellers, capitalization rates are really irrelevant in most cases, and it\u2019s making it very hard for appraisers, particularly this appraiser, to really understand what commercial properties are worth.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Hunt was the face behind more than $160 million in commercial property acquisitions in Aspen\u2019s past decade, when it comes to total square footage, his downtown real estate portfolio ranks second to a couple of landlords who have been doing business here since the 1970s, Gold said.<\/p>\n

Tony Mazza and Frank Woods own 11 properties downtown that encompass 160,000 square feet; Hunt is next with 17 properties amassing 140,000 square feet.<\/p>\n

Six groups of investors \u2014 which include Hunt, Mazza and Woods \u2014 control about 30% to 40% of downtown Aspen commercial real estate, Gold said.<\/p>\n

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

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

At the clip developer Mark Hunt is buying up commercial property in downtown Aspen, it is nearly inevitable that a 2016 city ordinance aimed at slowing down the influx of chain retailers will be tested. That\u2019s what a veteran property appraiser told a crowd of roughly 400 people gathered last week at the Aspen Board […]<\/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-2454967","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-local-news"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-18 13:44:39","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\/2454967","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=2454967"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2454967\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2454982,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2454967\/revisions\/2454982"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2454967"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2454967"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2454967"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}