Recently, David Koch sold both of his Aspen homes. It was reported by the Aspen Times who reported it as the largest property transaction for the week. I blogged about the home in previous post regarding the lifestyle of David Koch here. Koch actually purchased two homes.
The first home was purchased by David Koch back in January 1989 for $1.9 million. This main Aspen home was 8,100 square feet, 5 bedrooms, and a sit on just over 1 acre of land. The home was remodeled in 2013. The home would be part of a Vanity Fair photo shoot in March 2003 (the photo shoot was just after Christmas in 2002). The 865 Roaring Fork Road home is available for rent for $175,000 per month. As you can see from the listing the home as a very extensive wine cellar. The home was sold in June 2020 to the Lauder family for $23 million (this would say that the annual compounded growth rate of the home was almost 9%/year-however this doesn't take into account money put into the home to update and upgrade).
Under a 2003 Trust (David H Koch 2003 Trust-the trust was created in January 2003) the home was purchased (David Koch himself was the original purchaser of the home. The problem is if you pass and you own a home in a state (which is not your residence) then the home is subject to the probate process. If the home is placed inside a trust it avoids having to go through the probate process (if something goes through the probate process it is open for the public to view it). The home was famous when David was a bachelor in the early 1990's and would have 800 guests for the annual New Year's Eve party and was ranked as one of the best parties by Newsweek to crash. On Christmas Eve 1993 Charles Koch gave a moving toast to his brother David Koch and after Charles was done with his speech David asked "Does this mean you will let your daughter Liz go to my New Year's Eve party" and Charles responded "Hell, no". Charles obviously knew what went on at those parties and knew his brother.
The second Aspen home David purchased was actually on the same street and had three bedrooms, 3.5 baths, 2,675 square feet (more like a guest home) and last year valued at $7.9 million. It should be pointed out that brother Charles Koch owns a property on the same road as his former brother David did. David Koch purchased the home in December 1991 for only $1.75 million. The home in June 2020 was sold for $12 million (~6.8% appreciation per year). This home is actually available for rent as I write this for $50,000 per month.
David Koch had an impact on the Aspen community. Back in the 1990's Koch was a significant investor into the Isis Theater (the theater is temporarily closed due to COVID). The main attraction to him was the potential investment in the theater. In 1992 he tried to donate an Olympic size rink to the city of Aspen (Koch himself was willing to spend $3 million (he actually spent $50,000 on the planning and designing of the rink) however the rink was rejected by by the city council (it failed by 1 vote). The issue was during the summer the rink would having to be moved and transforming the area for other purposes was going to be too disruptive. David Koch during his life was also a board of trustees for the Aspen Institute. During the 1990's Koch gave over $1 million to the institute who was known for as a non partisan think tank that is committed to ideas in the area of business, energy, education, and other topics. It was actually at a July 2015 Aspen Institute event that David Koch ran into climate change activist supporter Tom Steyer were they chatted for a few minutes, posed for pictures (even shaking hands-I wonder how the woke folks would feel about this), and then after the event privately had coffee.
My guess is that the Koch estate is looking for liquidity. With $23 million on one home sell and $12 million would be roughly about $35 million of liquidity. Remember these monies were placed into trust as well so they will stay in trust unless distributed. Although, I don't know how the estate plan for David Koch works but there is no doubt it will provide estate liquidity.
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