Word: massarano
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...gilded bubble otherwise known as Aspen, Colo., the local pecking order isn't kind to outsiders. At the top are the natives, then the Johnny-come-latelies, followed by the tourists--who are vermin in most resort towns. But in Aspen, the bottom slot goes to guys like David Massarano, a prosperous real estate attorney from Houston who recently dropped $470,000 for three slices of a one-bedroom condo in the six-week-old Hyatt Grand Aspen, 157 steps from the gondola at the base of Aspen Mountain...
...hospitable to label a Texan of some standing a sucker in a small western town--a small western town with an airport, at least one $46 million ranch and visits from Cher--where his ski-happy family has been oiling the local economy since he was a kid. But Massarano doesn't mind. "I've been called worse things, being from Texas," chuckles the 50-year-old, who searched Pitkin County for years before finding the deal of his downhill dreams in the sprawling Hyatt, where the ghosts from bacchanals at the torn-down Continental Inn still dance...
...Massarano is not the only flatlander engaged in a high-stakes land rush for fractionals--the new-millennium term for time shares in lavish condominium projects in Aspen and other beautiful-people playgrounds sprouting around the world. Shelling out an average $221,600 for a deeded share, these Range Rover-in', Fendi-friendly folks who live to ski, golf and power shop are buying a couple of weeks of prime time in first-class venues stretching from the West Coast through the Rockies to the Gulf of Mexico. More often than not, though, the tab ranges from...
...this "economic freak show," as a prominent Aspenite calls the fractionals party, buyers in the Hyatt, including Massarano and ex-- N.Y. Met Keith Hernandez, are center stage. They've put up huge sums for properties that are hostage to the vagaries of the economy, the weather and obnoxious co-owners. Sure, the turndown service, wine bar and ice rink are nice. But what if Massarano wants to sell in a few years and buyers are scarce? (Hello, Pocono Mountains, Pa.!) "I'm just glad to have a place here," he says. "When I get to where...
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