Aspen’s Willoughby Way reads like a game of billionaire Monopoly, dotted with mansions owned by the likes of hedge fund king Dan Och, leveraged-finance titan Bennett Goodman and the parents of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.
They’ve long sought refuge in the wealthy Colorado mountain town. But they’re increasingly getting some company.
Aspen, a ski destination known for its exclusivity and cultural cachet, has been luring a new crop of part- and full-time residents. The old-time crowd is calling them parvenus — newcomers to the highest-ranking class of wealth.
The list is long, weighted heavily with members of New York’s finance elite, with some tech and SPAC millionaires sprinkled in. You might spot Dan Zilberman of private equity shop Warburg Pincus, or spouses John Eydenberg of Citigroup Inc. and Darin White Eydenberg of Korn Ferry. Nat Zilkha, a former partner at KKR & Co., bought the house of Goldman Sachs Group Inc.’s David Solomon in 2019.
The Covid-19 pandemic and its remote-work mentality has elevated Aspen beyond a tony mountain escape and into a kind-of Wall Street West. Not unlike Palm Beach or Miami, it’s facing an influx of ultra-wealthy business bigwigs who are no longer tethered to New York and California. Schools are harder to get into, luxury real estate is in even higher demand and a whole collection of restaurants and retailers have sprung up to cater to the rich newcomers.
By: Heather Perlberg - August 30, 2022