The New Jersey that exists in our minds has been shaped by the big three: Jersey Shore , Real Housewives , and The Sopranos . It’s a state with connotations of table-flipping and waste management. So could New Jersey really be home to the next Hudson Valley—the new Hamptons? The new Pendry Natirar , which is now officially open, would like to plead its case.
Robb Report recently visited the property for an exclusive first look at the new luxury resort set within a Garden State pocket of civility, wealth, and bucolic living. Nestled at the end of a 1.3-mile driveway that swirls its way through the rolling hills of Jersey’s equestrian country, just 48 miles from Manhattan in Somerset County, the Natirar estate is a 33,000-square-foot 1912 Tudor mansion.
Reminiscent of English country estate Natirar’s roots go back over a century, when it began as a home for Massachusetts maritime heiress Kate Macy Ladd. The name is a reversal of “Raritan,” the river that traverses the property. For 75 years, a women’s convalescent facility operated on the premises, until 1983 when Natirar was sold to the royal family of Morocco, who in turn sold it to Somerset County in 2003.
As part of an effort to preserve and activate the premises—which span some 411 acres across the towns of Bedminster, Far Hills, and Peapack-Gladstone—Somerset County leased a 90-acre parcel to local resident and real estate developer Bob Wojtowicz. For the next 20 years, he toiled over an ambitious plan t.
