Aspen building home to NY Pizza, Green Dragon sells for $7.3 million
Businesses in downtown currently in long-term leases, ‘don’t plan to go anywhere’
A Hyman Avenue mall building home to a pizzeria and pot shop has a new owner.
The $7.3 million sale of 409 E. Hyman Ave., which is home to Green Dragon marijuana dispensary and New York Pizza, closed the last week of June. The seller was Norton LLC and the buyer was Aspen Hyman 409 LLC, according to the Pitkin County Clerk and Recorder’s Office.
Green Dragon and New York Pizza are the building’s sole tenants. New York Pizza’s lease is good through 2026, co-owner Earl Rodgers said. Green Dragon has a lease with options, said Alex Levine, the Denver-based company’s chief development officer.
“We have a long-term lease,” Levine said, “and we don’t plan to go anywhere.”
The Green Dragon, which opened its Hyman mall location in March 2014, also will be undergoing an interior renovation later this year.
Green Dragon and New York Pizza complement each other well, with both establishments bouncing business off each other, Levine said
Rodgers and Kevin Jones opened New York Pizza in 1993. In February 2010, they expanded into Orchard Plaza shopping center in El Jebel, where a City Market is. And Friday, the third New York Pizza opened, this one at 400 E. Valley Rd. in Carbondale. It also is located near the new City Market.
That gives New York Pizza three locations in the valley and possibly more in the future.
“We’re local people,” Rodgers said, “and we’re not coming and going, and we have a loyal following.”
The new ownership’s long-term plans for the three-story, 3,720-square-foot building on Hyman, which includes a basement, are unclear.
“It just so happens to be a smaller building compared to other commercial (in downtown Aspen),” said broker Angi Wang, of Setterfield & Bright, who represented Aspen Hyman 409 LLC in its purchase.
The building was not listed on the Multiple Listing Service but came to Wang’s attention through the Denver office of New York-based commercial real estate company Newmark Group, which marketed the property for sale.
The new owner is associated with Aspen Shimmer Properties, which is based in Centennial, according to public records.
Wang said the buyers are keeping a low profile for now.
An LLC affiliated with Aspen Shimmer also bought the 228 S. Mill St. building for $5.9 million in January. The 4,300-square-foot commercial building is located around the corner about 300 feet away from where Green Dragon and New York Pizza do business.
The Mill building, completed in 1980, is listed on the city of Aspen’s inventory of historic landmark sites and structures.
In 2017, Aspen City Council adopted an ordinance giving buildings in downtown’s outdoor malls — located on blocks of East Hyman, East Cooper and South Mill — historic designation also.
