Aspen City Council Tuesday agreed not to purchase commercial spaces and affordable housing units in a historic downtown building.
The City has a “right of first refusal” for units in the ISIS building, where Aspen’s movie theater operates. A buyer has offered $10.4 million for two retail spaces and a pair of affordable housing units, but not the theater. The deal requires keeping the residential units affordable.
The city entered a public-private partnership in 2007 to acquire the building to keep a movie theater in town but to own the units in question it would need to put up more than $5 million - a task council seems unwilling to do.