The Dolce Basking Ridge Hotel at 300 North Maple Ave. in Basking Ridge — Courtesy: HFF
By Joshua Burd
A real estate investment firm has sold a Somerset County hotel for $30 million, a decade after acquiring the property through a partnership with a former hospitality company.
Brokerage firm HFF, which represented the seller, announced Tuesday that Broadreach Capital Partners had sold the 171-room Dolce Basking Ridge Hotel. The firm did not disclose the buyer of the property, a hotel and executive conference center at 300 North Maple Ave.
The HFF investment team representing the seller was led by the head of its hotel group, Senior Managing Director Daniel C. Peek, along with Director KC Patel and Associate Director Marc Duval, who is based in the firm’s Florham Park office.
Located in the Basking Ridge section of Bernards, the 22-year-old property was originally built as the AT&T Learning Center and was part of the telecom giant’s vast footprint at the time. AT&T reportedly sold the property in 2002 as part of a transaction with Pharmacia Corp., which was later acquired by Pfizer in a deal that put the property on the selling block once again.
Broadreach Capital Partners, a Palo Alto, California-based firm, took control of the complex in 2007, the same year it acquired an 85 percent stake in Dolce Hotels and Resorts. The firm then retained ownership of the property in February 2015, when Wyndham Hotel Group announced it was acquiring Dolce Hotel and Resorts for $57 million.
In a news release Tuesday, HFF said the Dolce Basking Ridge Hotel recently underwent $2 million in renovations to upgrade guestrooms and suites. The project also modernized the first- and second-floor meeting areas, which are part of 21,000 square feet of total function space.
The hotel is 30 miles from Newark Liberty International Airport and 40 miles from New York City, HFF said. It sits at the border of Somerset and Morris counties, among nearly 50 million square feet of office space and a host of Fortune 500 companies, including Verizon, Chubb Insurance and ADP.
The hotel also houses Vita Restaurant, Vita Bar, an indoor pool, whirlpool, fitness center, business center, basketball court and tennis court.
