Bill Balter of Wilder Balter Properties showing an Arrowcrest home to prospective buyers. Photo courtesy NY Times.

The NY Times, February 1, 1998.

The demand from baby boomers in the work force, at the height of their earning powers, is tremendous," said Marc C. Bergschneider, chairman of Hudson National Golf Club in Croton-on-Hudson and president of National Fairways, a developer of 15 golf courses from Florida to New England.

Hudson National, Westchester's newest golf club, which opened in 1996, is also the county's most expensive, with equity memberships priced at $175,000 and dues of $9,700 a year.

Yet the club, which an accommodate 300 members, has only 40 vacancies. Such is the attraction of golf in Westchester. Indeed, Westchester is the birthplace of golf in the United States, circa 1888 when the first course, named for St. Andrews in Scotland, was built in Yonkers.

Eighty-six luxury condominiums, adjacent to the St. Andrews golf course, were built 15 years ago. Turnover has been minimal, said Loni Wilkofsky, the property manager, who observed that only two units were currently being offered for sale. Home ownership does not include membership in St. Andrews, a private membership club.

Hudson National is now attempting to build 100 $1 million-plus houses and an 18-hole championship golf course for the use of the home buyers on a 747-acre site in Easton and Weston in Connecticut, Mr. Bergschneider said. The only thing limiting golf community complexes is the scarcity of large, open tracts of land.

"For executives, with very little time for leisure, having golf available out the back door, so to speak, is a "very appealing concept," Mr. Bergschneider said.

A study developed by Accountempts, a temporary staffing service, comes as no surprise. The survey revealed that the favorite pastime of 40 percent of 1,400 chief financial officers of corporations with more than 500 employees is golf.

In Briarcliff Manor, the 87 4,000 square-foot houses that Donald Trump wants to build around his new golf course are under considerations by the local planning board.

When Doral Greens, a complex of 92 individual town houses and 46 cluster units was completed on the country-club-like grounds of Doral Arrowwood in Rye Brook, proximity to the Blue Monster 11 Golf Course was a major selling point, Edmund S. Burns, the general manager of Doral Arrowwood, said. "Although only 20 percent of the owners of Doral Greens joined our golf club, about 80 percent were already members of area golf clubs," Mr. Burns reported.

The golf course at Doral Arrowwood was a major attraction to buyers at Doral Greens, he added. "It's hard to duplicate the esthetic value of living in a house adjacent to a golf course," he said. "The surroundings are beautiful and guaranteed to stay beautiful. Where else do you find such wonderful open spaces as provided by a golf course and where else do you find someone cutting your grass three times a day-with hand trimming thrown in for good measure." Doral Greens, Mr. Burns said, "not only sold out immediately when it was completed in 1995-1996, but since then all the homes have appreciated by 50 to 60 percent, and the smallest units, which were sold at a pre-construction price of $199,000, now are going for half a million dollars."

The head of a new development called Arrowcrest, adjacent to the Hudson National Golf Club, acknowledged that it, too has benefited from having a golf club as a neighbor. William Balter, a partner in Wilder Balter Partners, developers of Arrowcrest , said that once one mentions "golf course," home buyers flock to the site. "It's clear that beautiful surroundings, including the Hudson River and the Hudson National Golf Club, are a major draw to potential home buyers," he said. "Back in October, when we had just broken ground, more than 30 people called to inquire about Arrowcrest before the sales office was even opened. The first sale at Arrowcrest which occurred within hours of the opening, "was for our highest price home," Mr. Balter. "It's both adjacent to the golf club and overlooking the river." Fifty homes, five different models, priced from $475,000 to $675,000, are planned. "We started selling in November, traditionally the slowest time of the year," Mr. Balter said. "About 200 people have called for information and about 150 of them arrived in person. We've already sold four homes from plans."

Potential buyers, he said, fall into two categories. "There are the Wall Street types, young, in their 30's and 40's, living in Manhattan, and wanting to move because they have kids. The school district, one of the best in the county and the 48-minute commute, with frequent express service, is a big plus as are the golf clubs in the area. Garrison Golf Club, Briarcliff and Briarwood are all close by," The other type of buyer, Mr. Balter said, is older-someone in the market for a weekend home, who belongs to the Hudson National Golf Club. Owning a house so close to the club becomes an asset he can lend out to business clients."

Buoyed by the activity at Arrowcrest, Mr. Balter, who is 32, said he is already looking for other tracts of land near golf courses. "We expect the market for houses in the $500,000 to $700,000 range, those with big master suites, gourmet kitchens, dramatic two-story entrance halls and recreational rooms, to remain hot," he said. "Especially four houses built on or adjacent to golf courses. They rank at the top of the wish list, right up there with the desire for waterfront."

Mr. Balter, a former computer consultant, financed his graduate school education with the profits he earned from converting four railroad flats in Hoboken, N.J. into salable condos. "It got me hooked on real-estate development and started me looking around for affordable properties," he said. Since that was in 1989, there were a lot of foreclosures to be had. The first one I bought was a 40-unit project, Cross Creek in C ortlandt, from Peoples Westchester SAvings Bank. Only six units had been completed. I joined up with Robert Wilder, Jr., a real estate developer, and we got an affordable housing loan from New York State and one from Westchester, and we built 40 town houses, selling for $100,000, limited to those earning $35,000 or less. The day they went on sale, the line stretched around the block.

Other projects followed a similar pattern. Foreclosures, and affordable housing grants, from the state and the county. "One we did in Millwood, 26 two-family houses with a rental unit, was so sought after that a lottery was held for would-be buyers making no more that $50,000," he said. "The owners are restricted from reselling for 20 years, and then they are prohibited from making a profit, as the selling priced is pegged to the consumer price index."

Eager to venture into the luxury housing market, Wilder Balter Partners hired a focus group for direction. "Golf is what they came up with," Mr. Balter said. "They saw a growing demand for houses adjacent to golf courses, and fortunately in August 1997 finally we bought some beautiful land from a private developer for Arrowcrest."

Article reprint from the NY Times, February 1, 1998.