Texas Oil Magnate’s Daughter Sells One Aspen Mansion for $60 Million, Buys Another for $51 Million

Christy Thompson, the daughter of late Texas oil executive J. Cleo Thompson, has sold one Aspen, Colo., mansion for $60 million and is purchasing another for $51 million. 

The deals will be some of the most expensive ever recorded in the affluent mountain destination, records show.

Ms. Thompson and her husband, Stephen Hill, who are real-estate investors, have sold a mansion near the center of downtown Aspen in an off-market deal for $60 million. The buyer was Todd Lemkin, chief investment officer at Canyon Partners, the Dallas-based investment firm. Earlier this month, Mr. Lemkin and his wife, Kasey Lemkin, sold a historic home in the center of Aspen for $32.25 million, records show. Mr. Lemkin didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. 

Liz Leeds of Slifer, Smith & Frampton and REALM, who represented Ms. Thompson and Mr. Hill, said her clients weren’t planning to sell, but got an unsolicited off-market offer they couldn’t refuse.

Ms. Thompson and Mr. Hill are now slated to pay $51 million to buy a house about 3.5 miles from downtown Aspen from the venture capitalist Lawrence F. De George,  though the deal has not yet closed. The house came on the market for $49 million in July 2020, but the price was increased to $51 million last summer because of how hot the market had gotten for high-end homes in the area, said listing agent Carrie Wells of Coldwell Banker Mason Morse.

Built in 2011, Mr. Lemkin’s new house sits at the base of Aspen mountain and spans about 16,700 square feet with seven bedrooms, an indoor swimming pool, a bowling lane, a golf simulator, a spa, a wine cellar and a garage with a car turntable. It also has a 40-foot high entrance foyer with a 30-foot waterfall wall. The property has been rented by a number of celebrities, including the singer Rihanna, according to people familiar with the situation. A spokesperson for Rihanna didn’t respond to a request for comment.

Ms. Thompson bought the contemporary-style property in 2020. The price was $22 million plus the deed to a smaller home she owned in Florida that had been on the market asking $11.995 million, she told The Wall Street Journal at the time. 

Her newly purchased house is a custom-built mansion with high tech features, including a system that pumps additional oxygen into the master bedroom to mitigate the altitude. Mr. De George personally oversaw the creation of the roughly 15,000-square-foot, 4-bedroom house after buying the site for $16 million in 2009. The house has a number of unusual design elements, including a pair of glass elevators that are positioned near a window to take advantage of the surrounding landscape. It also has a movie theater inspired by Hollywood’s Golden Age. 

Mr. De George didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Ms. Leeds said her client has properties around the U.S. as well as in Belize and the Bahamas, which she rents to wealthy clients. She said she uses the properties as both personal retreats as well as investments, and already has requests for long-term rentals on the $51-million home.

Mr. Lemkin was represented in both deals by Mandy Welgos of Aspen Snowmass Sotheby’s International Realty.

By: Katherine Clarke I The Wall Street Journal I May 2022