St. Regis Aspen plan to go public on stock exchange postponed
The initial public offering of the St. Regis Aspen Resort hotel has been postponed indefinitely.
A statement issued shortly after 5 p.m. Wednesday from Aspen REIT Inc., the name of the single-asset investment trust that would have been traded on the New York Stock Exchange, said the IPO is off the table for now.
“Interest in our single-asset real estate offering was strong among international and high-net-worth investors,” said Stephane De Baets, who is the CEO, president and chairman of Aspen REIT. “However, we decided to pull the deal in order to retool our crowd-funding distribution channel in order to create a seamless conversion of the robust traffic to our site.
“We continue to believe the St. Regis Aspen Resort is an extremely attractive trophy asset and there is a future for publicly traded, single-asset REITs.”
De Baets had touted Aspen REIT as the first one if its kind in the United States with a single asset. REITs typically have multiple assets.
On Feb. 8, De Baets held a dinner party at the Chefs Club at the St. Regis to wow potential investors, following visits with private investors and institutions in Chicago, Denver, New York, San Francisco and other locales about the IPO of Aspen REIT, which would have been traded as “AJAX” on the NYSE.
A total of 1.675 million shares were to be sold at $20 each in an effort to raise $33.5 million in the IPO.
Elevated Returns, which owns the St. Regis Aspen Resort, would have retained 51 percent of the 179-guestroom hotel, which opened in 1992 as a Ritz-Carlton Hotel before being converted to the St. Regis in 1998.
Aspen City Council puts brakes on Old Powerhouse Preservation Project
With many lingering questions still surrounding the fate of Aspen’s historic Old Powerhouse, City Council decided during Monday’s work session to hold off on providing staff direction on moving the preservation project forward until more information can be presented.
