Stake in Aspen: His parents’ $16.5 million home in Pitkin Green Notes: Koch, with his brother Charles, has tried to reshape the political landscape of America by giving millions to conservative and libertarian causes and candidates through various business and political networks. Stake in Aspen: Two West End homes together worth $12.8 million Primary residence: New York City, New York Attendees included fellow Aspen billionaires Ken Griffin and Richard DeVos. Charles and David, who hold twice-yearly meetings for like-minded, ultra-wealthy investors who are politically active in the brothers’ conservative agenda, hosted one such gathering at the St. Perhaps Bill is retreating to his Paonia ranch, where he re-created an Old West town.īut Aspen is not simply a vacation retreat for the Kochs. He has made headlines for being a plaintiff in a lawsuit against the city of Aspen over its desire to use Castle and Maroon Creek water for hydropower for buying-and now trying to sell, for $90 million-the former Elk Mountain Lodge in the upper Castle Creek Valley, a 32,500-square-foot compound used for weddings and corporate events that he converted into a 15-bedroom single-family home and for suing his interior designer for not properly decorating the home in a western theme. Bill is perhaps the most high profile locally. David, who used to throw elaborate holiday parties at his Aspen home, is a trustee of the Aspen Institute, where a building bears his name. Charles, who is CEO of Koch Industries, the second-largest private company in the country, with sales of $115 billion, was an avid skier until his knees gave out. THE POWER TRIO: The Koch BrothersĪlthough the Koch brothers are collectively known for their conservative politics, each has a somewhat different relationship to Aspen. Notes: Liz Koch, Charles Koch’s wife, described skiing with her husband as “flying down mountains, staring at the back of his head, feeling terrified,” according to a 2012 Wichita Eagle article. Stake in Aspen: $5.9 million West End home Source of wealth: Diversified, including energy, agricultural materials, and pulp and paper The billionaires’ net worths, which Forbes now tracks daily, are listed as estimated by Forbes on June 9, 2014, and in May 2014 by the Los Angeles Business Journal. Property values listed are from the county assessor’s most recent valuation period, which reflects the market as of June 30, 2012, and formed the basis for property tax bills for 20. Using those lists as a starting point, Aspen Journalism, an investigative journalism nonprofit that produced this story for Aspen Sojourner, then used public property records-and old-fashioned shoe-leather reporting-to verify the billionaires’ stakes in the Aspen community. And we’ve included the Crown family, owners of the Aspen Skiing Company and multiple local homes, who recently made Forbes’s inaugural list of America’s Richest Families. Two are listed as billionaires by the Los Angeles Business Journal, but not by Forbes. All but three are on the 2014 Forbes World’s Billionaires list. Here, then, are the Aspen 50: the fifty wealthiest people in the world with property in Pitkin County-and there are almost certainly more than those who appear on our list.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |