Jul 22, 2026
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Add us on GoogleBillionaire Bill Koch is used to turning a profit when he puts his rare and valuable possessions up for auction, so he set out to do the same with Elk Mountain Lodge, his sprawling ranch near Aspen, Colo.
“I’ve seen firsthand how auctions can unlock extraordinary outcomes across art, wine, and other one-of-a-kind holdings,” Koch said in a release announcing the auction of the property.
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But it didn’t pay off for his family compound in the mountains. The auction opened with a $100-million guide price July 7.
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When bids closed July 17, it sold for about a third of that at $33.5 million (not much more than the $26.5 million he paid for the property nearly 20 years ago).
Compare that to the $28.8 million Koch made last year selling 7,800 bottles of his wine at a Christie’s auction. Or the record $84.1 million he made this January selling Western art at auction.
Like his art, Elk Mountain Lodge is unique — 26,000 square feet of log-cabin-style luxury on 52 acres of land, complete with two ponds, a river and nearby lakes.
“You can never replicate this,” Aspen-area listing agent Steven Shane said in a video. “We can no longer build 26,000 square feet in our valley.”
So why didn’t it fetch more money when the average home in Aspen sells for $13 million?
Finding the right buyer for a one-of-a-kind luxury property
Its uniqueness may have been the challenge.
Before Koch put Elk Mountain Lodge up for auction, it sat for over 500 days, dropping in price from $125 million to $99 million. Koch also tried to sell it for $100 million in 2015, unsuccessfully.
Shane, the Compass Real Estate Broker who handled the sale in tandem with Concierge Auctions, told the Aspen Times that it takes a special kind of buyer to bid on such a property.
It was marketed as a year-round family home — albeit one with 15 bedrooms, 17 full bathrooms and two half-baths.
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“Contrary to popular belief, even in Aspen there’s a limited buyer pool for $100-million properties,” he said.
“And not only do we need an ultra high net-worth person, we also need an adventure seeker, somebody who embraces the mountain lifestyle and wants to be able to provide it to generations.”
Shane added that with few similar properties, or comparables, the auction would help determine its value, regardless of what the seller sought.
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Location, location, location
As real estate agents say, much of a home’s value comes down to location, location, location.
Shane pitched the upsides of Elk Mountain Lodge’s location, noting that a buyer could snowmobile from Elk Mountain Lodge to Aspen Mountain Ski Resort during the winter season.
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The setting for Koch’s property is stunning — but it’s 11 miles from downtown Aspen.
Lance Hughes of Aspen Luxury Sales told the Wall Street Journal that he “thought it would go for more,” but its relative distance from the year-round action in Aspen was definitely a drawback.
“If it was two miles from town, there’d be a knife fight (over the selling price),” he said.
Bill Koch and his wife are empty nesters, and he said that was part of his motivation in selling the property.
“The Aspen property has been an incredibly meaningful place for my family, but the time has come for someone else to enjoy it, and I look forward to seeing its next chapter unfold,” he said.
The couple also sold their place in Cape Cod last year for $20 million.
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Laura Boast is a Senior Reporter with Moneywise.com and a lifelong content creator who has reached international audiences at Discovery, CBC, Blue Ant Media, Bond Brand Loyalty and more.
