Wiltwyck members buy club some time
Contributions delay closing, lessen chance of foreclosure
“The last golf ball may not have been struck at Wiltwyck,” Board of Directors President Steve Digilio said Monday in announcing a reprieve for the golf club.
The Wiltwyck Golf Club was to shut down this coming Sunday, Nov. 5, but “much to the surprise of many, a significant number of members came forward” and contributed enough money to cover the club’s November mortgage and escrow payment and stave off foreclosure, Digilio said.
He said Wiltwyck’s monthly payment is “just shy of $18,000.”
About 50 of the club’s roughly 200 members came to a membership meeting Sunday, which was been called to discuss the end of the facility’s 63-year run, Digilio said. About half the mem-
bers attending that meeting contributed to the November payment, and more money is still coming in, he said.
“The membership felt very strongly that it should do what it can do, have a normal [end-of-season] closing and look at the site over the winter,” he said.
Asked whether the club, which is at 404 Steward Lane, off Lucas Avenue, will be able to make its December mortgage payment, Digilio said: “The immediate financial pressure has been dealt with.”
He also said there are “prospective buyers,” including one who surfaced over the weekend. He did not identify any possible buyers.
The reprieve “gives you time to circle back and talk with interested individuals who might not have been ready [to buy] on a short schedule,” he said.
On Saturday, in confirming the planned shutdown, Digilio said there were “several interested buyers” and that some had said they might continue operating a restaurant at the 150-acre site.
He said Wiltwyck could reopen as a private club, a semi-private club or a public golf course.
Wiltwyck was listed in August for $3.5 million by the Murphy Realty Group in Kingston, and it currently is on the market for $2.9 million.
“Barring a sale anytime between now and next spring,” the club will not remain open, Digilio said Saturday.
The club’s restaurant, which previously stayed open through New Year’s Eve and reopened in early April, will close two weeks from now, even with the newly contributed money, and 10 seasonal employees will be laid off as a result, he said.
In a letter to club members on Friday, Digilio, wrote: “In my 70-plus years, this is one of the hardest letters that I have ever written. The Board of Directors voted unanimously at its Oct. 25, 2017, meeting, that Wiltwyck Golf Club will officially terminate.”
At its peak, Wiltwyck had more than 500 members, but the number began to decline after IBM closed its town of Ulster plant in the mid-1990s, Digilio said Saturday.