Donald Hoenig, a fourth-generation Vice President of Operations, plans to have all renovations completed in December.
The Raceway Golf Club in Thompson, Conn., was originally built in 1947 and consistently has ongoing renovations at its courses and clubhouse. In about a month, Raceway GC is undergoing its main renovations, including additions to the clubhouse that have been part of the club’s long-term vision for about 20 years.
Donald Hoenig, a fourth-generation Vice President of Operations, says these additions have been a long time coming, and Raceway GC finally feels confident enough to pursue them.
“We finally committed to doing this, but we’ve been talking about it forever,” says Hoenig. “My point has always been that if we do it, we can’t just spend money making different spaces do the same thing. It has to pay for itself. It has to create a new revenue stream to make sense.”
With this philosophy, Hoenig decided to remove the event tent behind the main clubhouse at Raceway GC because it wasn’t adding the value the club wanted. He says the extra space the tent provided was helpful, but it was hard to heat and cool. Adding onto the actual building fixes this problem.
“We decided to incorporate simulators into the addition because they give golf courses a winter business model—a new revenue stream,” says Hoenig.
Simulators around Raceway GC aren’t very prominent, says Hoenig, although there are some courses with temporary ones or smaller ones in strip malls.
“But there’s no fun center like we are trying to build here,” he says.
The addition features four golf simulators with three glass garage doors that showcase the road and drifting courses, a unique aspect of Raceway GC. Because not only is Raceway Golf Club an 18-hole golf course, but it also features the first paved, oval racetrack in the country, as well as a purpose-built road course.
“We have basically two businesses and all this history, so we knew the additions had to highlight that,” he says.
The new addition also features over 600 square feet of putting green, a wraparound patio overlooking the race track, a racing simulator, and, in the center of the bar, Hoenig is having the whole island be a full-sized, modified race car.
“It’ll actually be Ryan Preece’s (a motorsport racing driver) car that he raced on our track and won championships with,” says Hoenig.
Dropping down from both sides of the bar and floating from the ceiling are 16-tap beer systems on each side of the car, between the wheel wells.
Hoenig plans on having all these renovations done in December.
