Those developers are Sir Richard Branson, who aims to make the hotel/spa part of the Virgin Limited Edition luxury hotel portfolio within his Virgin Hotels Group, and local businessman Robert Wojtowicz. The $90-million project will evolve in three phases, with the first slated to be ready in April.
Focal point of the project is Natirar, a 40-room mansion dating back to 1912. It was named Natirar by original owners the Ladd family, who reversed the spelling of the nearby Raritan River. The property was later owned by the late King Hassan II of Morocco, whose estate sold the mansion and its surrounding 450 acres to Somerset County in 2003 for $23 million. The county subsequently leased it to the developers for 99 years.
"There have been delays for a variety of reasons," Wojtowicz says. "But we look forward rather than backwards."
Those delays were related mostly to regulatory, permitting and planning issues. One complicating factor has been that while the core mansion is situated in this community, portions of the sprawling property spill over into neighboring Bedminster and Far Hills.
"The borough is delighted if not overjoyed that the groundbreaking is taking places," says Peapack-Gladstone Mayor William Horton, in a statement. "We wish the spa the greatest success."
In the overview, the project calls for approximately 200,000 sf of hotel, spa, restaurant and related space. Phase one calls for conversion and expansion of a carriage house on the site into the Carriage House Culinary Center, a combination culinary school and restaurant. Wojtowicz has set an April 1, 2009 goal for completion.
Next up in phase two would be completion of the hostelry's 25,000-sf spa complex, currently slated for completion by the end of 2009. The final phase would be renovation and expansion of the mansion itself into a 76-room hotel, including conversion of several existing smaller buildings around it into guest cottages. The property will also have a variety of recreational amenities, although much of the 450-acre site will be retained as open space.
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