Friday, November 30, 2007

Prince Bandar Changes His Rich and Fickle Mind

As of the end of November, there is one less $100,000,000+ trophy property on the market looking for a homeless billionaire.

According to a recent post on The Real Estate Bloggers, Royal Prince Bandar of Saudi Arabia has decided not to sell Hala Ranch, his 90+ acre Aspen hideaway that has long been for sale with a face smacking $135,000,000 asking price.

Although Mister Bandar has more money than the damn Pope, it costs a lot of oil money to maintain and staff a 56,000 square foot house with 15 bedrooms, 16 bathrooms, a hotel lobby sized living room, a beauty parlor and a barbershop, water treatment plant, car wash, mechanical shop, indoor and outdoor swimming pools, tennis court, racquetball court, heated horse barn and a huge pond stocked with fish. Dayum.

The ranch was initially put on the market because the Prince rarely visited the estate. Now that no one else wants it, maybe he'll jump on his private plane and visit a bit more often to help justify the outrageous expense of owning a place like this. Your Mama doubts it though.

According to Joshua Saslove, THE mega broker of high end properties in the Aspen area, there was "enormous interest" in the property that looks more like a corporate retreat than a private home, but "none of the interested parties wrote a contract that was acceptable to the seller."

Bummer.

Now puppies, just how many times have we told you that rich people can be enormously capricious and one can never predict what choices that breed of fat cat will make on a moments notice when it comes to buying and selling the real estate? A thousand times if we've told you once.

Here's a not very educated or informed by anyone in the know prediction kids: Hala Ranch will remain quietly on the market and come back on the open market several months into next year at a substantially reduced asking price.

15 comments:

Anonymous said...

I love it, I would buy it in a second.

Anonymous said...

Anyone with property in Aspen only use it a couple weeks a year ... generally over xmas & new year when all the insipid manhattan idiots are visiting!

Anonymous said...

My wife and kid and I would love to take care of it in the winter!

REDRUM!!

Anonymous said...

I read about this last week, Friday I am pretty sure in The Denver Post. I think they scooped all ya'll!

I love the blog though!

Anonymous said...

I love the clouds and the teal mountain tops on the horizon. I'm trying to stick to the subject.

Anonymous said...

I wonder what the furniture is like?The Saudis usually go for a look I like to call "Baghdad Louis".I was going to do a little story about it,but decided not to.I don't want them to do one of those Salomon Rushdie things on me!

Anonymous said...

i'm all over the woods & mountain house but once again too g/d big.

this is a corporate retreat

Anonymous said...

Ms. F, you are wise to be circumscribed in your characterizations of the Saudi abode. I'm sure it's filled with lovely gold filigree screens and gold leaf ceilings. Doorways and walls draped and swaddled in gold and blue brocade, not that there's anything wrong with that. "Baghdad Louis" would be funny if one was inclined to a dangerous sense of humor, which I'm not. So I'm not laughing.

los angeles lofts said...

Now that's a dream house. I'm saving up for it. How manny pennies will I nee dto fill my jar.

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