Stephane De Baets

The sale of the tokens was administered on the digital asset platform Templum Markets. Aspen Digital Token later migrated to the Securitize platform and will start trading in October 2019 in multiple exchanges. The tokens effectively operate as shares in the property.

The firm is a pioneer in digitizing traditional financial assets using blockchain-based technology. In 2018, Elevated Returns launched the first major digital tokenization of a commercial real estate asset with the St. Regis Aspen Resort. In February 2019, Elevated Returns announced plans to digitize its entire portfolio of real estate assets using the blockchain technology Tezos. The digital offerings will be made available to accredited investors on the Securitize platform.

In 2018, it was announced that Aspen St. Regis would serve as the backing asset for a digital tokenization offering allowing accredited investors to take minority ownership stakes in the property through a blockchain-based technology. The offering was the first major digital tokenization of a commercial real estate asset. To facilitate the digital tokenization of the Aspen St. Regis Resort, De Baets established Aspen Digital Token, also known as AspenCoin, in 2018. This venture used the blockchain technology Ethereum to sell 18 million digital securitized tokens representing ownership stakes in the Aspen St. Regis Resort. Each of the 18 million tokens were valued at $1, together representing an 18.9 percent ownership stake in the Aspen St. Regis. Elevated Returns maintained control of the other 81.9 percent.

In 2017, the restaurant group transitioned from its nightly menu and visiting chef format to a residency program, in which a different chef assumes complete creative control of the space and menu at one of its three locations for months at a time.

Chefs Club launched a second location in New York City in 2014, followed by a fast-casual location called Chefs Club Counter in 2017. The group has been called an innovator in the industry. At first, Chefs Club featured full nightly menus from a rotating cast of nearly 200 prominent chefs from around the world.

In 2012, De Baets launched the restaurant group Chefs Club inside the St. Regis Resort in Aspen, Colo.

De Baets is a majority controller of the Aspen St. Regis Resort in Aspen, Colorado, through the single-asset trust Aspen Digital Inc., which operates as a subsidiary of Elevated Returns. He purchased the property through Elevated Returns in 2010. The resort is located at the base of Aspen Mountain.

He was also formerly part-owner of OptAsia Capital, a Bangkok-based investment firm founded in 2008, until he divested in 2018.

Stephane De Baets (born April 6, 1969) is a Belgian investment, real estate, and hospitality entrepreneur. He is founder and president of the international asset management firm Elevated Returns, which controls the Aspen St. Regis Resort in Aspen, Colorado and other commercial properties in the United States, Europe, and Southeast Asia.