NOWADAYS, a parcel of several hundred acres is almost unheard of in local builders’ circles.Yet that’s exactly what developer Michael Dubb, a partner in the Beechwood Organization, secured several months ago in Manorville, two miles south of the Long Island Expressway in eastern Suffolk. Last week, he broke ground on that property and hopes to begin selling the units next month. Two-thirds of the land is preserved as open space-land Dubb and his builders won’t touch. But the Jericho-based developer is planning to use about 150 acres for 271 single-family houses and 36 townhouses. The townhouses, Dubb said, will be designated for senior citizens, so at least one of the purchasers must be 55 or over.”I hope to sell the homes to young families and hope to sell their parents a townhouse in the same community,” said Dubb of the mixed-use development. “We need more of that.”

The single-family houses are being priced at $190,000 to $290,000, and the townhouses, which haven’t been specifically priced yet, will fall in the low $200,000 range, Dubb said. Called Country Pointe at Manorville, the community will not be gated, but some models offer new products and designs unusual to Long Island, and to the Beechwood Organization in particular. For instance, included in some models are established computer rooms and, more important, wiring for computer networking- a first for the organization’s developments. Several units will have garages that sit below the first floor, thanks to the topography of the property, and of Dubb’s nine single single-family models, several will be ranches instead of the traditional colonial. Dubb said most of the units will abut open space, giving buyers the feeling that they have more property than they actually do, since each lot is only a quarter-acre each. Houses will range from 1,800 to 3,000 square feet. Though considered small in other parts of the country, 300-unit developments are among the largest now on Long Island- and are a rarity. Dubb hopes to finish the project in three years, though the first buyers may move in as soon as this summer.