Bank sues over loan on $39M home

A second bank has sued wealthy Aspenite Dan Burrell for not repaying an eight-figure loan and is asking a judge to let it take a $39 million house of his in lieu of payment.

Alpine Bank, which is headquartered in Glenwood Springs, sued the businessman March 25 in Aspen. It said that Burrell owes $18 million on an $18.5 million loan issued in 2021.

Alpine is asking Judge Anne Norrdin to let it foreclose on the loan’s collateral: 768 Hunter Creek Road in Aspen, an 8,400-squarefoot home that is listed for $38.5 million.

“Mr. Burrell has a good working relationship with Alpine Bank,” an unnamed representative for Burrell said in a statement to Businessden this week, “and anticipates that he will resolve the matter of his Hunter Creek home in the coming weeks.”

But Alpine is not the only Colorado bank that wants the property. First Western sued Burrell in November, claiming that he hasn’t repaid $56 million in loans that are collateralized by the same house in Aspen that Alpine is seeking, along with five other luxury properties.

In January, a judge in Eagle County ruled that First Western can sell properties Burrell owns at 969 and 1043 Willits Lane in Basalt. Those foreclosure sales haven’t happened yet. Burrell is also being sued in Aspen by U.S. Bank for allegedly not repaying a $3.5 million loan.

Burrell, 45, has varied business interests. His Burrell Aviation develops cargo facilities at airports and his Burrell Diversified Investments includes real estate holdings, investment funds, medical technology companies and construction, according to its Linkedin page.

Outside Colorado, Burrell is auctioning off his 190-acre ranch near Taos, which includes a 27-bedroom, 27,000-square-foot main house and 10,000-squarefoot guest house. He bought it for $9 million in 2019, with plans to make it a retreat for children with internet addictions but borrowed against it, leading to foreclosure attempts, according to media reports.

Burrell’s $56 million dispute with First Western has proven more contentious than his other banking quarrels. In January, he countersued the Denver bank, accusing it of predatory lending for giving him business loans knowing he would spend the cash on cars, a yacht and divorce payments. He also accused First Western of publicly outing him as being in debt.

First Western is asking Pitkin County Judge Christopher Seldin to throw out that countersuit. Burrell is “a sophisticated Yale-educated lawyer and entrepreneur” who lied about how he would spend the business loans and therefore can’t claim he was fooled, the bank said.

“Burrell’s attempt to find refuge in these consumer protections,” it wrote to Seldin on March 21, “is directly at odds with the information (he) supplied to First Western and flies in the face of the intent of the statutes that were enacted to protect consumers from predatory lenders, not multi millionaire sophisticated businessmen who wanted to purchase yachts.”

First Western’s lawyers are Trevor Bartel and Frances Scioscia Staadt with the Denver office of Lewis Roca Rothgerber Christie. Alpine Bank, which declined to comment on Burrell, is represented by Jason Buckley and Trent Lauridson at Garfield & Hecht in Aspen.

Burrell’s lawyers are Sarah Auchterlonie and Courtney Bartkus in the Denver office of Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck.