Billionaire’s unsellable home gets a $36 million discount

After spending more than a decade bouncing on and off the market with no buyer in sight, billionaire Bill Koch is making a final bid to offload his sprawling ranch.

Known as Elk Mountain Lodge, the Colorado compound is now heading to auction – years after Koch first attempted to sell the property in 2015 for US$100 million ($139,565,400).

A year later, in 2016, the listing was reduced to US$80 million ($111,652,320), with parts of the estate offered separately.

After a momentarily stint off the market, the US businessman re-listed the home for US$125 million (about $174 million) before slashing US$26 million ($36,287,004) from the asking price. That reduced the amount to US$99 million ($138,169,746) before its auction move.

Set across 52 acres (210,437 square metres) in Aspen’s Castle Creek Valley, the estate features more than 25,000 square feet (2,322 square metres) of living space spread across eight buildings.

At its centre is a sprawling main lodge, complemented by seven guest cabins, a fitness centre, private trails, river frontage, ponds and an eight-car garage.

The estate’s sheer scale is part of what makes this offering so unusual – and likely why it has been so hard to sell.

With a staggering 15 bedrooms and 19 bathrooms, the compound is significantly larger than most luxury homes in Aspen, which is better known for its ski chalets and mountain retreats.

Koch and his wife, Bridget Rooney Koch, purchased the ranch in 2007 for US$26.5 million ($36,984,831) before transforming it into a private family retreat.

The 86-year-old billionaire is the founder of Oxbow Carbon and has an estimated fortune of US$2 billion ($2,791,308,000), according to Forbes.