Although the sheriff's sale occurred Dec. 12, the deed for the property transferred to Starwood on Jan. 20, Yorktowne General Manager Rick Cunningham said.

Management changed to Hersha with the ownership switch and it hired Yorktowne's existing staff, he said. Business continues as usual at the hotel, Cunningham said.

Hersha Hospitality Management operated more than 80 hotels as of this fall, according to its website. It has been owned by affiliated executives and trustees of publicly traded Hersha Hospitality Trust, with offices in Philadelphia and Harrisburg, and other third-party investors, according to the company's 2010 annual report.

Greenwich, Conn.-based Starwood Capital Group is a private investment firm that has more than $18 billion in assets under management, according to its website.

A loan dispute between previous Yorktowne ownership group York Hotel Group LP and creditor PNC Bank had landed the property at 48 E. Market St. on the York County Sherriff's Office sale ledger.

The proceedings were delayed several times. But on Dec. 12, the sale went through to a new assignee of judgment named as VIII-Hotel II P Loan Portfolio-Yorktowne LLC for the sale's costs of $2,719.57.

York Hotel Group had entered into an agreement with Mercantile-Safe Deposit and Trust Co., now PNC Bank, in February 2007 for $4.5 million, according to court documents filed in 2010.

The sheriff's office listed the judgment levied in the case at about $4.3 million.