New NJ resort opening with Sir Richard Branson as partner; restaurant Dec. 1, lodging 2010

Richard Branson partner in new NJ resort, Natirar

PEAPACK-GLADSTONE, N.J. — A new luxury resort is opening on an estate in New Jersey with Sir Richard Branson as a partner.

The Natirar resort will be set in a 40-room mansion on 90 acres of a 500-acre property in Somerset County, N.J. The estate, located about 45 miles from New York City, was once owned by King Hassan II of Morocco.

The first phase of the project, the Ninety Acres Culinary Center, opens Dec. 1 with a restaurant, cooking school, wine school and working farm on 15 acres. The culinary center will support local agriculture, with some ingredients grown onsite. The restaurant will offer a New American farm-to-table menu with entrees ranging from $26 for steak to $32 for lamb. Other choices include pizzas, lobster and duck.

The resort with guest accommodations will open in the summer of 2010. Promoters are trying to build a five-star buzz, promising “a bucolic setting” that combines state-of-the-art technology, personal service and a 21st-century lifestyle with the grandeur of the past. Facilities will include guest cottages, media room, 4,000-square foot pool, tennis courts, fitness facility, croquet field and greenhouse. Guests will also be able to go horseback riding, fly-fishing or try their hand at gardening or farming.

The land, which includes waterways and woodlands, is owned by the county and public access to about 400 acres will continue for hiking, biking, jogging and picnicking.

The land for the resort is being leased to a businessman, Bob Wojtowicz, with whom Branson is partnering. Branson owns Virgin Airlines. The two men met after Wojtowicz vacationed at Branson’s Caribbean getaway, Necker Island, which gave Wojtowicz the idea to create a resort in the U.S.

The 33,000-square-foot Tudor-style estate home where the Natirar resort is based was built in 1912 for Kate Macy, an heiress, and her husband Walter G. Ladd. They named the place Natirar, which is Raritan spelled backwards. The Raritan River traverses the property. The estate was later owned for several years by the Moroccan king, who died in 1999, and was eventually purchased by Somerset County.

For more information, visit www.natirar.com or call 908-901-9500 to make a reservation at Ninety Acres.