Tampa Bay Lightning Owner Pays $63.75 Million for Texas Oil Heiress’s Aspen Mansion

Tampa Bay Lightning owner Jeff Vinik has paid $63.75 million for an Aspen, Colo., mansion in an off-market deal that closed this month.

The seller was Texas oil heiress Christy Thompson, the daughter of late Texas oil executive J. Cleo Thompson. She and her husband, Stephen Hill, paid $51 million for the property last year, records show.

A spokesperson for Vinik and his wife, Penny Vinik, confirmed the purchase but said the couple will keep their main residence in Tampa, Fla.

Thompson and Hill didn’t respond to requests for comment.

The property spans a total of 5.7 acres, including an approximately 3-acre vacant lot, records show. The roughly 15,000-square-foot mansion has high-tech features such as a system that pumps oxygen into the primary bedroom to mitigate altitude. A pair of glass elevators is positioned near a window to take advantage of the mountain views, and the house has a movie theater inspired by Hollywood’s Golden Age.

Lance Hughes and Nancy Patton of Aspen Luxury Sales represented the buyers. Hughes declined to comment on the identity of his clients, but said they had been looking for a while to find something that “checked all of their boxes.”

Jeff Vinik is a prominent stock picker who closed his hedge fund, Vinik Asset Management, in 2019.

Thompson and Hill, who are real-estate investors, sold another Aspen mansion for $60 million last year.

In another off-market deal that closed this month, a condominium spanning the top two floors of a building in downtown Aspen sold for $47.91 million, records show. The condo last traded for $36.5 million in 2021. The seller is a Dallas-based limited liability company. The buyer is unknown.

Known as the “Mother Lode,” the interior totals nearly 9,000 square feet, and there is about 2,500 square feet of outdoor space, including a roof deck with its own kitchen and hot tub. Carrie Wells of Coldwell Banker Mason Morse brokered both sides of the transaction. She wasn’t available for comment.

While high-end real-estate markets across the country are suffering, Hughes said the luxury market in Aspen is still strong because there is high demand and limited inventory. “There are very few properties that are truly trophy properties that are finished out, available and someone would actually sell,” he said.

E.B. Solomont | Mansion Global | August 28, 2023