March 25, 2011--DANVERS -- The Lightstone Group has won Crowne Plaza, the 366-room hotel and CoCo Key Water Resort on 50 Ferncroft Road, with a bid of $10.1 million in a competitive auction, according to a statement from Lightstone.

The Lightstone Group describes itself as one of the largest privately held real estate companies in the country.

The hotel was owned by Denver-based Sage Hospitality Resources, and it was offered with a starting bid of $6.9 million. At eight stories, it was built around 1976 on a hill overlooking Route 1 and Interstate 95. It offers 30,000 square feet of meeting space and a 10,000-square-foot ballroom.

It was promoted as the largest hotel on the North Shore. The owners paid Danvers nearly $200,000 in taxes and, because part of the property is in Middleton, they paid $254,000 there.

The hotel was previously known as the Sheraton Ferncroft Resort. Sage bought it in 2005 for $26.6 million, then sold the golf course for $13 million to help pay for the water park and extensive renovations. The park cost $20 million, and the makeover was $15 million.

The hotel got a new name, Crowne Plaza, in 2009.

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