The former Granit Resort property includes a 332-room resort hotel that features a six-story tower and several wings that house more than 40,000 sf of convention space, a 7,000-sf amphitheater, a spa fitness center, outdoor swimming pools and tennis courts. The more than 550-acre site also includes an 18-hole golf course.

Kennedy Funding, a Hackensack, NJ-based direct lender, provided $9.78 million in acquisition financing for the transaction. Meridian Capital Group of New York City brokered the financing.

Real estate investor Elliott Spitzer (not the New York State Attorney General) plans to focus the hotel's marketing efforts on the significant Jewish population that visits the region, Kennedy Funding officials say. The Spitzer firm hopes to develop the vacant land into more than 250 single-family home lots. That plan is subject to municipal approvals.

"The resort had been kept in very good condition and showed few signs of deferred maintenance," says Jeffrey Wolfer, president and co-CEO of Kennedy Funding. "The potential of the site is as a resort, and the spa will fit very well into that plan, especially during the winter with the slopes nearby."

Built in the late 1950s, the resort went through a renovation program in 1997-1998. Most of the rooms were refurbished, along with the lobby and conference room, Kennedy Funding officials say. The spa was built during the renovations and the last nine holes of what is now an 18-hole golf course were added as well.