Neither expense nor tender loving care was spared when business partners Wayne Corts and Barry Fixler bought the former Inn at Central Valley and its adjoining golf course out of foreclosure, transforming it into the Falkirk Country Club.
Corts has taken pains to renovate the club and the course from top to bottom. A bright, welcoming reception/cocktail area opens up to a brand new ballroom. Downstairs, the basement and storage area have become a second, smaller ballroom, with an adjoining sports pub for golfers and members to enjoy ”“ either watching the flat screen TVs or sitting on the new brick-paved outdoor patio. An interfaith chapel is planned for the facility, as well as an outdoor patio for wedding receptions and parties.
Corts estimates improvements have cost $1.5 million to date and expects the entire project, when built out, to come in between $5 million and $6 million. “I”™ve had more than 150 laborers and trades working on this job,” Corts said. “We”™ve added green technology, upgrading insulation and adding geo-thermal heating and cooling. Who needs Obama”™s stimulus”™ package? We”™ve created our own, and have added 25 people to the current staff of 50. You can”™t sit around and wait for things to come your way; if you want it badly enough, you”™ll find a way to make it happen.”
Right now, he”™s focused on getting the renovation of the club house completed and putting the finishing touches on the golf course, which is dotted with stone walls, bridges and more than 600 new trees and other plantings now gracing its greens. Corts is building out the 5,200-foot golf course to 7,000 feet to meet championship-length PGA requirements. ?Corts offered the school district”™s golf team the use of Falkirk for practice gratis and plans to make the property a year-round venue, adding snowboarding and adding a covered putting green on steep slopes on the north side of the property. “We want to be financially sustainable and offer year-round activities for our members and the public,” said Corts. He”™s waiting for the Central Valley Planning Board to give the OK for the proposals.
Corts does not foresee raising current membership dues. “Even though we”™ve taken it several notches up in quality and character, we”™re in a recession. We are also not in Scarsdale. The last thing I want to do is to make the club unaffordable; my goal is to keep the 80-year-old golf course open and intact and make it beautiful.”
Corts is also offering members the opportunity to utilize Falkirk Farm, a private equestrian center adjoining the golf course ”“ complete with an indoor riding ring. “My daughter rides, and that”™s what sparked the idea to build it,” Corts said.
Is there a hotel in Falkirk Country Club”™s future? “I hope so,” said Corts, who would like to build a 55,000-square-foot boutique hotel, complete with indoor spa area. “It would be the perfect complement to round out what we are offering.”
Corts isn”™t minimizing Falkirk”™s “wow” appeal. At a recent event held by the Orange County Citizens Foundation honoring Roberta “Bobbie” Glinton of Port Jervis for her community work, more than 200 guests were filled with praise for Corts”™ TLC, right down to the open and airy reception area and ballroom, as well as its expanded outdoor deck.
“Its absolutely gorgeous,” said Susie Linn, executive director of the Orange County Arts Council. “It”™s hard to believe it”™s the same place that was here a few months ago. It”™s a total rebirth.”
