By Michael Richetelli
First Selectman Jim Zeoli and the entire Orange Board of Selectmen has recommended the town purchase the property currently owned by Race Brook Country Club. The property encompasses approximately 287 acres and includes 27 golf holes, a clubhouse, maintenance facility, two residential structures as well as other improvements. The purchase price of $8.5 million would be financed though a bond process, which would be financed over 20 years. The purchase price equates to about $29,600 per acre, a tremendous value considering the current real estate market.
Orange has always valued our most precious resource: land. The town has acquired numerous parcels over the years to be preserved and protected as “open space.” These purchases include Wright’s Pond, Fred Wolfe Park, Turkey Hill Preserve, Race Brook Tract, the Ewen Preserve and more. These purchases help maintain the character of the town, while also providing areas for recreation, natural habitat preservation and other uses by the residents.
This proposed acquisition is different in the sense that Race Brook Country Club would continue to occupy and utilize the property as a tenant, operating a first-class private golf club and banquet facility. Race Brook County Club would enter into a long-term lease, paying the town an annual rent starting at $250,000 in 2022, with increases thereafter every five years. Once the bond is paid off, the town will have the benefit of the rental income for years to come while maintaining control over this pivotal piece of real estate. The purchase would be an investment in the town’s future, an investment that unlike prior open space purchases would produce revenue for the town.
Race Brook Country Club has been in operation since 1912. It is one of the finest golf courses in the state and has been an asset to the town and the region for over 100 years. Its history is filled with rich tradition and character. Its most famous member was President William Howard Taft, who played at Race Brook from 1913-1921. There have been numerous other celebrities who have enjoyed a round at Race Brook, including Bob Hope, Bing Crosby and Jackie Robinson. Race Brook has also been visited by world class golfers such as Walter Hagen, Ben Hogan, Gene Sarazen and Tom Watson. The club has hosted numerous state and regional golf championships and was Yale University’s home course until the opening of the Yale Golf Course in 1926; the Bulldogs captured three intercollegiate championships while at Race Brook. It has truly been a notable and important part of Orange’s history.
Although the golf industry – especially private clubs – has been faced with many challenges in recent years, including a drop in memberships, Race Brook has seen a resurgence this past year, adding many new members and stabilizing its balance sheet. It has always been an impeccably maintained course and offers a beautiful venue for weddings and other events.
The proposed purchase of the property by the town will provide the club financial flexibility and help to ensure that Race Brook Country Club will continue to be part of the fabric of the town for decades to come.
It will also protect a large tract of centrally located land from future development. A parcel this size, if developed for residential use, could create unprecedented density for the town and a tremendous burden on town services, ultimately having an adverse effect on taxes for the residents. This scenario would end up having a detrimental effect on property values in the future.
This purchase is truly a win/win proposition; both the Town of Orange and Race Brook County Club will enjoy a mutually beneficial long-term relationship.
I would encourage all residents to vote to approve the purchase at the town referendum on Tuesday, Feb. 16.
Michael Richetelli is an Orange Resident, president of Colonial Properties and Race Brook Country Club member.
Whenever I hear the comment, “It’s a no-brainer” it usually means the advocate wants us to stop thinking. A 7/12/18 article in Forbes Magazine relating failures of Golf Course Community facilities has some relevance to this situation.
These things are expensive to manage, and need a lot of members to survive. Memberships are declining as golf play is as well.
“The course failures and legal battles we are now seeing are the result of the golf course community homeowners’ failure to do so, and HOAs have begun to realize their errors. But it’s too little, too late in most cases, and the lawsuits simply add to the pain for both the course owner and the homeowners. Once closed and left untended for as little as a year, it can cost several million dollars to repair and reopen a course — nature reclaims unmaintained land quickly, and home values can drop as much as 50% within weeks of a course closing. As the public becomes wiser to the issue, many homeowners are experiencing a decline in value as a course begins to show signs of its death spiral.
This was predicted by Bob Turner of Beaufort, South Carolina in his paper, Sustainability Through Design, where he pointed out that spreading too many amenities over too few paying homeowners would create an unsustainable burden. Real estate developers knew that they were in the business of building, not operating, golf courses, so they sold or gave away their interest (and liability) in the clubs. Often developers sold shortly after closing all the homes in a community and moving onto another location and another new course.
HOAs face tough decisions: Do they buy the facility or enter into some other arrangement with the owners to maintain the course and clubhouse, or do they resign themselves to having the land be developed into more homes in their backyards? Some have looked to their local parks and recreation departments for help that has been slow to materialize, if at all.”
This is why this has the earmarks of a defensive bailout. If the Club bottoms out, what then?