Sarpa, heading up the Aspen office, will be the point man for other development opportunities as they arise in Aspen and the Rockies.Smith and Matteson, Centurion’s co-founders, have long taken ski vacations in Aspen. Goldman Sachs, a New York-based investment banking, securities and investment management firm that is helping finance Centurion’s local projects, has committed another $50 million to the partnership, according to Matteson.Aside from the two hotel projects, Centurion is pursuing a development of three spec homes, a single-family residence and a duplex, at Gibson and South avenues, and an employee housing project at the base of Smuggler Mountain associated with the Lodge at Aspen Mountain.And there are another three or four projects in the works, Matteson added.”They’re pretty significant in size,” he said. The trio recently sat down to discuss their interests in the resort, both figuratively and literally.The three partners estimate they have $30 million in private funds – including their own – and up to another $60 million from their banking partners invested in Aspen development opportunities. A longtime local developer who also chairs the Aspen Valley Hospital board of directors, Sarpa is the familiar face of a partnership that is bullish on Aspen. So does the name of their local partner: John Sarpa.Matteson and Smith, based out of Centurion headquarters in Newport Beach, Calif., brought Sarpa into the fold about a year ago. Two of its partners are behind the largest of the resort’s new hotel projects, while the third helped make Aspen’s largest hotel a reality more than a decade ago.Few Aspenites are familiar with the names of Scot Matteson and Michael Smith, but the names of their projects – Lodge at Aspen Mountain and the Residences at The Little Nell among them – likely ring a bell. (Mark Fox/Aspen TImes Weekly)Īspen’s ongoing hotel renaissance is bringing a very visible transformation to the resort, much of it from a relatively invisible source – a trio of businessmen known collectively as Centurion Partners.The California-based company has ties to both Aspen’s future and its past.

Michael Smith, Scot Matteson and John Sarpa, left to right, comprise Centurion Partners and the force behind a couple of large, new Aspen hotel projects.

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