Jimmy White, president of Urban Story Ventures, shares big plans for Valleybrook Golf and Country Club at the Friends of Hixson meeting design renderings in 30 to 45 days.
photo by Hannah Campbell
Urban Story Ventures President Jimmy White laid out plans for a complete overhaul of the Valleybrook Golf and Country Club at a Friends of Hixson meeting Wednesday morning.
White announced that Principal Architect Cynthia Dye of Dye Designs Group will design the renovated 18-hole course.
“I actually learned the game here,” said White, whose father Larry White played three PGA tours. “We’re excited to make Valleybrook a special place again.”
Other design partners include local architecture firm Tinker Ma, which has worked with the Honors Course club and McLemore Club in Rising Fawn, Ga., as well as a new restaurant operator and landscape designers.
White said a design rendering will be available in 30 to 45 days and the first construction will begin by the end of the year. He said he aims to have the first facelift complete by April for grand opening centering around the Masters Tournament.
Urban Story Ventures and Rivermont Golf and Country Club owner Priscilla Mitts Dietterich, along with her brother Byron Mitts, acquired the Valleybrook property in May from Luken Holdings.
Henry Luken had said that the "highest and best use of the property is not for a golf course," but White told the Hixson group he believes it is the highest and best use.
“We inherited a lot of problems,” White said, but “we’ve avoided the iceberg.” His team started working in January, before closing, to repair sewer lines, bathrooms and golf carts.
Phase 1 will include dredging the silted-in ponds and clogged streams and replacing all bridges.
“We need to get water flowing through here again,” White said.
The dying fairways have been saved, he said, and the new management will “actually open up the driving range. I mean, that’s a novel concept,” he said.
The club restaurant currently has a sold-out Friday buffet. The new restaurant will be open to the public and provide event space with a new bar, new flooring and new equipment, and Sunday brunch.
“I think Hixson is starving for a great restaurant here,” White said.
Phase 2 will clear superfluous golf cart paths which taint the views of rolling green, White said.
The renovation will eventually include pickleball courts, new locker rooms, parking lot expansion, a pool and playground, re-routing the main entrance and clubhouse refurbishment.
White said most work will be done in the golf off-season each year, from about November through March.
“Four years from now we should be able to drop the mic and sit back,” he said.
Valleybrook was built in 1959 and designed by course architect Charles “Chic” Adams. It was one of the first 18-hole golf communities in the country. The course has hosted nine PGA tour events.