Above the Waterline

Burgess was founded in London in 1975 by Nigel Burgess, a solo ocean racer. Half a century later the firm works from nineteen locations: Monaco, Palma, Athens, Phuket and Sydney among them, alongside city offices in New York and London.

Aspen is the exception. It is the only Burgess office in a mountain town, at almost eight thousand feet and hundreds of miles from the nearest coast.

To understand why it is here, I spoke with Emily Byerly, Head of US Marketing at Burgess, who initiated the firm's arrival in Aspen.

The decision began with listening. After the pandemic, Burgess saw its American clientele grow, and as its brokers planned winter charters, one name kept returning to the conversation.

For many of these clients, Aspen and the Caribbean belong to the same winter. Burgess chose to follow them.

Burgess spent its first two winters in Aspen, in 2023 and 2024, on the mountain rather than in town, as a partner of the ASPENX Beach Club at the summit of Aspen Mountain. ASPENX has since become Aspen Collection, and the venue, at 11,262 feet beside the Sundeck, is now Eleven212.

The contrast between a winter resort and the world of superyachts proved to be the point. The intention was to meet clients where they already were, as part of their day on the mountain rather than an interruption to it. In Byerly's words, Burgess set out to be “adding to the experience people were already having in Aspen, rather than taking away from it.”

In December 2024, Burgess opened its own office in Aspen. Its place at street level was a deliberate choice: a room that invites conversation, designed so that no one who walks in feels pressured or intimidated.

Inside, deep blue walls hold framed superyacht photography above leather and velvet, and the Burgess volume published by Assouline rests on a marble table. The room is closer in spirit to a private salon than to a brokerage.

The office serves two purposes. Existing clients call in to see their broker while they are in town. And for those who have long been curious about yachting without knowing quite how the industry works, it offers an unhurried first conversation.

“Chartering a yacht or buying a yacht, it's an interesting process,” Byerly says. “It's not something that's widely talked about.”

Asked what the town has taught the firm about its clients, Byerly speaks first of warmth. “They're very warm, welcoming, friendly people,” she says. “I think there's a lot of trust that we have with our clients.” Invitations in Aspen are met with genuine enthusiasm, she notes, and guests are glad to bring friends.

Burgess has shaped its presence accordingly. “We've tailored our brand to fit the Aspen environment,” she says. Since 2023 that presence has included the Smuggler Social during Food & Wine weekend, private dinners in town, a cocktail reception at Kemo Sabe at the close of last winter and, this summer, events with The Little Nell. Summer, Byerly observes, is as busy as winter, if not busier.

From where we sit in Aspen, the pattern is familiar. The families who spend part of the summer at sea are often the families who return here each winter, and what they value in both places is the same: discretion, local knowledge and things done properly.

“A lot of these clients, they work hard in their personal and professional lives to be able to come to a place like Aspen and really enjoy it to its full potential,” Byerly says. “So we are happy to be a part of that experience.”

This winter will be Burgess's fifth in Aspen, and the office will remain open while Aspen–Pitkin County Airport is closed from April to November 2027. Byerly spent much of that first winter in town. “I'm a big skier, so when Burgess asked me to explore the Aspen area, I was very happy to volunteer myself,” she says. She speaks of Aspen less as a market than as a community. “It's such a beautiful community. And we're just so thrilled to be a part of it.”

“Our team out there loves Aspen,” she says. “They care about their relationship with the town as much as they care about their relationship with the clients.”

A superyacht house in the Rocky Mountains was never the obvious idea. As it enters its fifth winter, it reads less as a gamble than as a long commitment: to a town, and to the clients who return to it each season.