The sale price was not disclosed, but the properties were acquired with the help of acquisition financing totaling $48 million arranged by New York City-based AFC Capital. According to information released by AFC Capital, the firm also brought in a joint venture institutional partner for NGH and took an equity stake in the assets itself as well.

The seller was Claremont Construction Co.

"We are excited to acquire these hotels in such high-barrier-to-entry markets," says Sujal Mehta, CEO of NGH, who co-founded the company in partnership with New York hotel developer Ashok Dhabuwala and Sonny Patel. "The Somerset Hills hotels in particular are located in a dense corporate community of major Fortune 500 companies."

"These hotels have a tremendous amount of history and charm," Dhabuwala says. "We believe that these properties will prove to be the cornerstone of the future of our development."

The Somerset Hills Hotel consists of 111 guest rooms, 7,000 sf of meeting space and a restaurant/bar. The Inn at Somerset Hills has 112 rooms, 2,500 sf of meeting space and a pub. The Four Points at Sheraton adds 147 rooms to the mix.

"We intend to renovate and improve these hotels to better serve both the corporate and leisure travelers," Mehta says. That renovation will be most dramatic for the Inn at Somerset Hills. Built in 2000, it's the newest of the trio, and under a license agreement with the Atlanta-based InterContinental Hotels Group it will be converted into that company's Hotel Indigo brand, which Mehta terms, "an exciting new boutique concept." The property will be renamed Hotel Indigo at Basking Ridge.

That conversion of the four-story property is slated to start in June and be completed by the end of the year, according to Jim Anhut, IHG's senior vice president of brand development. The Hotel Indigo brand currently includes eight open hotels and, "40 more in the pipeline," Anhut says.

Besides Four Points Sheraton and Hotel Indigo, NGH is currently involved with such hotel brands as Crowne Plaza, Doubletree, Holiday Inn, Hampton Inn and Best Western. According to Mehta, the target is to grow the company's asset base by more than $200 million over the next year through a combination of new projects and acquisitions in the metro New York area.