Residential golf community breaks ground.

With golf legend Jack Nicklaus and a host of community and business leaders looking on, ground was broken on October 18 for what promises to be one of the finest golf residential communities to be built in the New York Metropolitan region.

Located on approximately 400 acres in the estate area of Purchase in the Town of Harrison, The Country Club of Purchase will feature 73 single-family estate homes situated on a Jack Nicklaus 18-hole, 7,100-yard championship golf course. The Country Club of Purchase will also include a clubhouse, tennis courts, outdoor and indoor swimming pools, and walking trails.

Speaking at the ground-breaking ceremony, Masahiko Kasuga, president of Hickory Pine Associates Limited Partnership, the owner/developer, said The Country Club of Purchase will set a new standard of excellence for residential golf development in this region.

"We have assembled the finest land planners, environmental consultants, architects, engineers, attorneys and golf course designers and are pleased to have started construction on what we know will be the finest residential community of its kind in the entire region. We are also wholeheartedly committed to respecting the environmental integrity of this very special property," Mr. Kasuga said.

"We are proud to be a part of the Town of Harrison, an outstanding community renowned for its natural beauty and excellent quality of life. The Country Club of Purchase will be an asset to the town as well as the county," Mr. Kasuga added.

Dennis Frank, President of Franklyn Development Corp., who led the project through the approval process and is now a consultant to the development of the project, praised Harrison officials, saying, "You are to be commended for your dedication and diligent efforts in completing one of the most thorough and professional environmental reviews of any development in the history of this town and perhaps all of Westchester County."

Jack Nicklaus, who heads the world's leading full-service golf course design firm, said, "The Country Club of Purchase is a rare and beautiful piece of property, and I am looking forward to building an equally beautiful and challenging golf course."

Mr. Nicklaus added, "We have already begun our work routing the course, and the views through the rolling, wooded areas will be quite something. We look forward to enhancing the natural beauty of the area and establishing one of the area's top championship golf courses."

Jack Nicklaus, who first began designing golf courses in 1968, has designed over 100 golf courses open for play in 18 countries and 24 states. Over the past two decades, Nicklaus courses have hosted over 150 professional golf tournaments worldwide. Twelve of his designs ranked in the 1993 "Top 100 Greatest Golf Courses" in the United States by Golf Digest.

The residential portion of the development, called The Estates at the Country Club of Purchase, will be operated by a homeowners association. The country club will be operated as a separate entity, with memberships open to the general public. Memberships have been reserved for those building homes at the development.

Home sites will range in size from 1 to 3 acres. The architectural style of the homes will be in character with the traditional estate homes that have made Purchase one of the area's most beautiful residential communities.

The development cost of the project, excluding construction of the homes, is estimated in excess of $100 million.

The first phase of development will be construction of the 18-hole championship golf course designed by Jack Nicklaus. The course will use the natural elements of the site, which is characterized by a gently sloping topography and an abundance of large oak, maple, birch and beech trees, to create a mature looking golf course.

The heavily wooded site, which was once owned by the Pforzheimer family, is considered one of the finest and largest residential tracts of land in the entire lower Westchester and southern Fairfield County area. It is located on both sides of Purchase Street in an area noted for its exclusive country clubs, large estates and first-class corporate facilities, including the world headquarters of PepsiCo and Texaco.

"There are few properties anywhere in this region that can compare with this site in terms of its natural beauty and accessibility to an affluent corporate market," said Mr. Frank. "We are confident that our plan, combined with the expertise of Jack Nicklaus, will result in a world-class development that is a solid sales success."