From Deseret News archives:
Just rich too poor in Aspen
His company's premier listing, called Hala Ranch, is a 95-acre estate built in 1991 for the family of Prince Bandar bin Sultan, the former ambassador to the United States from Saudi Arabia and the home's only (occasional) occupant.
At $135 million, Hala, just northwest of downtown Aspen, is the most expensive single-family residential property in the nation on the market, Saslove said. Selling it mostly consists of saying no.
Saslove has received about 1,000 requests to tour the home since October when it went on sale, and he, along with lawyers for the prince who review every call, have granted just 11 of them. This is what high-mountain hideaway money in Aspen has come down to: Even the ordinary rich can no longer press their noses to the glass.
In the marketing of Hala, which means "Welcome" in Arabic, non-billionaires need not apply. Hala will almost certainly, Saslove believes, be a new owner's second, third or fourth home.
Money on that scale does not just stumble in off the street. There are 946 billionaires, according to this year's tally by Forbes magazine, keeping Saslove's list of potential buyers relatively short.
Saslove said that people like Prince Bandar, who is currently the secretary general of the Saudi National Security Council and is not spending as much time in the United States as he once did, helped establish Aspen's newer style, which is much more about family, culture and art — and wealth that even Hollywood stars cannot match.
"I don't see as much braggadocio as I used to," said Saslove, a gruff 66-year-old with longish hair and a nonstop Blackberry.
At 56,000 square feet, Hala is bigger than the White House, with a staff of 12. It has 15 bedrooms, 16 baths, a private barbershop and beauty salon just off the master suite and enough space for a party of 450 people.
Saslove, whose company, Joshua & Co., is an affiliate of Great Estates, the real estate arm of Christie's auction house, said homes that cost about a million dollars in the 1970s now might sell for nine times that. On Aspen's coveted west side, an ordinary lot, 60 feet by 100 feet, costs $3.5 million.
