Page 31 - BusinessWest March 17, 2025

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Back to the Future
Cesar Ruiz Intends to Rewind the Clock at Wyckoff Country Club
BY GEORGE O’BRIEN
[email protected]
esar Ruiz says it was only a few hours after he wrapped up a well-attended press conference in early February 2024, announcing his plans to bring a large sports complex to Holyoke, when his
phone first pinged with someone offering some real estate for the initiative.
“He texted, ‘I’m a Holyoke boy. I’ve got five and half acres in downtown Holyoke. I’d like to do my part,’” Ruiz said. “So we followed that thread, but it was nothing we were interested in.”
The second time it pinged ... well, that was a little different.
“It was a text sent to the mayor and forwarded to me, saying, ‘I have 100 acres in Holyoke, and you may be interested in looking at it,’” Ruiz recalled. “I was thinking to myself ... ‘where is there 100 acres in Holyoke?’”
Some quick research revealed that the parcel in question was Wyckoff Country Club, and its belea- guered owners were looking to sell.
And Ruiz, anxious to gain some momentum for his project and unwilling to be “outflanked,” as he put it, by other potentially interested parties, was willing to not only listen, but enter into a purchase- and-sale agreement.
Fast-forwarding our story a little, the Wyckoff site, bordering a thickly settled residential neighbor- hood off already-busy Route 141, was essentially
“There’s been no real work done on this place in 50 years.”
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Cesar Ruiz bought Wyckoff with a sports complex
in mind, but his intention now is to keep it a country club and grow both membership and events.