Explore Booksellers, Aspen, Colo., is under contract to be sold for $4.6 million, according to a motion filed Friday in current owner Samuel Wyly's bankruptcy case, the Aspen Times reported. The cash deal includes the historic Main Street house and $200,000 for books, furniture, computers and other business assets.
The buyer is Explore 221 Main LLC., a limited liability company owned "by an individual who resides at least part time in Aspen," the motion said. Wyly, who put Explore Booksellers on the market earlier this year for $6.5 million (later reduced to $5.5 million), filed for bankruptcy protection in October. His attorneys "want the sale to take place as soon as possible after approval by the bankruptcy court, but no later than January 21," the Aspen Times wrote.
The fate of the bookstore remains uncertain. Commercial real estate broker Karen Setterfield, who had the listing on the property, said there had been "an incredible amount of activity" on Explore since it was listed. "The overwhelming interest is to keep it a bookstore" among those making inquiries, Setterfield noted, but she had "no knowledge of the interest by this buyer."
Former Aspen Mayor Bill Stirling, a founder of the Save Explore Committee, said the committee "hasn't been in contact with the prospective buyer," but hopes the bookstore will remain a bookstore.
