Saudi prince's £68m Aspen home sets US price record
Tuesday, 3 July 2007
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It may be billed as "the greatest listing in the world" but Hala Ranch in the Rocky Mountains is proving hard to shift. With a price tag of $135m (£68m), the ranch is also the most expensive home put on the US market.
It is owned by Prince Bandar bin Sultan, the man at the heart of the £1bn corruption inquiry into BAE Systems, who until last year was Saudi ambassador to the US. His visits to the US are less frequent nowadays, perhaps because he is concerned that allegations that millions of dollars in kickbacks flowed into his US bank account could trigger a criminal inquiry here. Prince Bandar flatly denies the accusations.
Despite 1,000 requests to view the 95-acre estate since it was put up for sale last October, the mountain retreat just north-west of the exclusive resort of Aspen remains on the market.
Joshua Saslove, the estate agent handling the sale, told The New York Times that after review by the prince's lawyers, only 11 viewings of the 1,000 requests to see Hala Ranch have been granted. At least two have been to journalists who have written glowing accounts of the mountain retreat.
At 56,000 sq ft, the building is bigger than the White House, with which Prince Bandar became familiar in his 20-year term as ambassador. He and his wife, Princess Haifa, built the ranch in 1991, as Aspen was transformed from a place of hippie chic into the destination of choice for billionaires and their hangers on.
His second home has 15 bedrooms, 16 baths, a barber and beauty salon, as well as a vast indoor swimming pool. It requires a staff of 12 to run and has enough space to cater for a party of 450.
According a New York Times reporter, most rooms have banks of windows overlooking the Rocky Mountains. "Dark, gleaming wood beams, all with notched construction and not a single nail head showing, pale plaster walls and TV screens dominate the decor,'' he wrote.
The neighbours are mostly celebrities. One is Barbi Benton, a former Playboy playmate and B-movie actress. To reassure any billionaires about prying eyes, Mr Saslove reveals that: "The estate is fully self-sufficient. An extensive and sophisticated security system surrounds the entire 95-acre estate, ensuring peace of mind and the utmost in protection.''
