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Enron's Lay sells Aspen cottage for $10 mn

Embattled former Enron Corp chairman Kenneth Lay, who lost a fortune with the collapse of the energy giant, has sold his "cozy country cottage" in this ski resort of Aspen for $10 million -- more than five times what he paid for it.

The sum has staggered local real estate brokers.

Lay's real estate agent Joshua Saslove said that even though the executive sold the 3,000 square foot riverfront cottage he bought for $1.9 million 11 years ago at a huge profit, "It was a very difficult decision for the family."

The cottage, sitting on three acres along the banks of the Roaring Fork River, played an important part in family functions, serving as a retreat, Saslove told Reuters. "It's a warm, fuzzy and cozy cottage in a wonderful setting."

Local real estate agents said they were shocked at the amount the cottage went for, saying it was worth about $5 million at most. "It doesn't appear to be worth anything like $10 million. The Aspen market is good but not that good," said one prominent real estate agent, who asked not to be identified.

Lay's wife Linda recently told a television interviewer that the family was selling off all of their property save their home in Houston because they were in a "liquidity" crisis -- struggling financially.

Saslove declined to name the buyers of the three-bedroom ranch home, but said the deal was a private sale.

But later a spokesman for Bradley Bell, executive producer and head writer of the CBS soap opera "The Bold and the Beautiful," confirmed that he was the buyer.

The spokesman said in a statement: "(Mr) Bell confirms that he has purchased a property previously owned by Ken Lay, which is in the same neighborhood as the Bells' current residence in Aspen. Bell and his family are very low-key and private people with a long history in the Aspen area. Bell does not know Lay and has no ties to the Enron Corp."

The Lays also sold a vacant lot on a bluff overlooking the Aspen art museum for $2.1 million and are marketing two more homes they own in the area.

"There have been offers made, but no one has come to terms yet," Saslove said of the other properties.

Two other Enron executives also have homes up for sale in the Aspen area, which provides second homes for some of America's richest executives, for about $6 million each.

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