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Sardy House swaps hands for $23 million

Rick Carroll
The Aspen Times
The iconic Sardy House on Main Street sold this week for just over $23 million, the most expensive property deal so far this year in Pitkin County.
Jeremy Wallace/The Aspen Times |

The Sardy House, one of Aspen’s Victorian jewels, sold this week to a limited liability company for just over $23 million.

The new owner is BTRSardy LLC, according to documents filed Wednesday with the Pitkin County Clerk and Recorder’s Office. John Devaney of Key Biscayne, Florida, was the seller.

“(Devaney) used to stay there from time to time,” said Joshua Saslove of Douglas Elliman Real Estate, which had marketed the home for rent.



The property, located at 128 E. Main St., was sold off-market and not listed for sale, according to property brokers. The purchase price, $23.09 million, is more than double the Pitkin County Assessor’s actual value of $11.82 million for the property. The sale also marks the most expensive real estate deal so far this year in Pitkin County.

Devaney once was a successful hedge-funder who crashed during the Great Recession. He reportedly has bounced back, but in 2009, Time magazine labeled Devaney one of the “25 people to blame for the financial crisis.”




Under Devaney’s and others’ ownership, the Sardy House has been the setting for the annual Christmas tree lighting that attracts hundreds of locals and visitors who flood the 100 block of East Main Street to sing carols and sip hot chocolate and cider.

The distinctive red-brick Queen Anne Victorian was built in 1890 for John W. Atkinson, an Aspen businessman and sheriff.

It changed hands multiple times over the years, owned for some 40 years by mortician Tom Sardy, who ran it as a funeral parlor and hospital. In April 1985, Sardy sold it for $1 million to Frank Peters and Daniel Delano, who converted it into a luxury hotel and restaurant. The owners did a multimillion-dollar renovation of the building in 2003 and turned it back into a private residence, later selling it to Devaney for $16.25 million in November 2006.

The seven-bedroom, nine-bath main house encompasses 9,243 square feet, while the carriage house is 5,676 square feet, property records show.

It also is part of the Main Street Historic District.

“No exterior changes to the building exterior or the site are permitted without a staff-level or Historic Preservation Commission approval, depending on the scope of work,” said Amy Simon, historic preservation officer for the city of Aspen, in an email. “Nothing other than basic repair work would be allowed on this property for now because of the moratorium” on the filing of land-use applications in Aspen’s commercial districts and the Main Street Historic District.

BTRSardy, the new owner, was formed April 13, according to the Colorado Secretary of State’s Office. Its mailing address is linked to a wealth-management firm in Palo Alto, California.

rcarroll@aspentimes.com