Dominic F. 'Nick' Antonelli Jr., D.C. Real Estate, Parking-lot Magnate, 88, Washington Post
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/07/22/AR2010072205644.html
Dominic F. 'Nick' Antonelli Jr., 88
D.C. real estate, parking-lot magnate Dominic F. 'Nick' Antonelli Jr. dies
at 88
By Emma Brown, Washington Post Staff Writer
Dominic F. "Nick" Antonelli Jr. grew up so poor that he survived at times on
nothing but cornflakes and water. After dropping out of high school, he made
a living as a carhop in a parking lot across from the plush Mayflower hotel
in downtown Washington. He lived in a boarding house nearby, where he spent
Saturdays ridding his room of bugs and rats with the careful use of
kerosene.
From those beginnings, Mr. Antonelli used determination, shrewdness and
connections with the District's elite to build one of the city's largest and
most powerful business empires, a conglomerate of parking lots and sprawling
real estate investments that gave him a key role in shaping the development
of the city and its suburbs.
Mr. Antonelli, 88, who became part-owner of the Mayflower before the
collapse of his businesses forced him to declare bankruptcy in 1991, died
July 19 [2010] at his home in Potomac. He had cancer.
Mr. Antonelli went into the parking-lot business in 1946 when, using
carefully scrounged savings, he leased and then bought the lot where he had
worked as an attendant. He eventually built a nine-floor corporate
headquarters there for Parking Management Inc., the firm he founded with
railroad heir Kingdon Gould Jr. By the mid-1960s, PMI operated 90 lots in
the city, and the company's logo is still ubiquitous on garages in the
District.
He gave generously to politicians, including Rep. John L. McMillan (D-S.C.),
the longtime chairman of the House District Committee, to prevent the
creation of a municipal parking authority. But he realized early on that
land, rather than parking, was the key to wealth.
Working 18-hour days, the entrepreneur made millions of dollars in the
post-World War II real estate boom of the 1950s and '60s. He bought and
demolished hundreds of old buildings, turning the sites into parking lots
until he was ready to build office buildings, apartments other profitable
developments -- many of which included PMI garages.
Mr. Antonelli's real estate holdings extended into Washington's suburbs and
as far afield as Panama, where he owned more than half a million acres of
land, a coconut-oil refining business and a Coca-Cola bottling company. He
also owned interests in a range of businesses, including tomato and cucumber
farms in the Bahamas, an auto-parts manufacturer in Maine and a
ship-salvaging outfit in Texas. He lived on a 22-acre estate in Potomac and
occasionally spent time on his 103-foot yacht.
The key to his success, he said, was his willingness to work harder than
anyone else. His first big business deal came in 1947, when he bought a pair
of binoculars and rented a room on the top floor of the Willard Hotel.
Camped there for several days, he counted the cars going in and out of the
Great Plaza, a giant government-owned parking lot at 14th Street and
Pennsylvania Avenue NW.
When the Great Plaza came up for lease, the information Mr. Antonelli had
collected gave him an edge. He submitted the winning bid and went on to
operate the lucrative lot for more than 30 years.
After a rise, a fall
Decades after Mr. Antonelli's rise, however, his business empire began to
falter. By the early 1960s, he had co-founded Madison National Bank and
Mortgage Investors of Washington. The bank financed real estate ventures in
the region and came under scrutiny for lending heavily to Mr. Antonelli and
other insiders.
In 1978, Mr. Antonelli was indicted on charges of bribery. Prosecutors said
that he had landed a $20 million contract to lease office space to the D.C.
government in return for providing financial help to mayoral aide Joseph
Yeldell, who owned a struggling travel business and was unable to repay his
loans from Madison National Bank on time.
Mr. Antonelli and Yeldell were convicted by a Washington jury, but the case
was retried in Philadelphia after it came to light that the father of one of
the jurors had worked for -- and been fired by -- Mr. Antonelli. The second
time around, the two men were acquitted.
Mr. Antonelli, an intensely private man who rarely spoke to the media,
stayed largely out of the news until the early 1990s. He was forced to seek
Chapter 11 protection in 1991 when Madison National Bank failed, a recession
slowed the real estate market and several loans that he had guaranteed for
other developers went bad, leaving him with more than $250 million in debt
that he couldn't repay.
In one of Washington's largest and most complicated personal bankruptcy
cases, the same financiers who had courted Mr. Antonelli's business for
decades were now creditors who examined his business records and convoluted
partnerships in a years-long search for assets.
In 1993, Antonelli reached a settlement that required him to turn over his
considerable business and interests and sell his estate. He repaid creditors
about 35 cents on the dollar; in return, he was allowed to keep $4 million,
which he used to live on after buying a modest home in Potomac.
Children of immigrants
Dominic Frank Antonelli Jr. was born April 8, 1922, to Italian immigrant
parents in McAlester, Okla. His mother died when he was young, and the
family moved to Washington, where his father sold olive oil and his
grandfather worked as a marble carver -- six of his statues adorn the Union
Station entrance downtown.
Mr. Antonelli was an Army veteran of World War II. At one time, he worked in
the circulation department of The Washington Post, whose former offices on E
Street NW he eventually bought and leveled to create a parking lot.
His marriage to Dorothy Lee Jones ended in divorce. Survivors include his
wife of 42 years, Judith Gwenn Dolan Antonelli of Potomac; two children from
his first marriage, Lee Antonelli of Jupiter, Fla., and John Antonelli of
Deerfield Beach, Fla.; and three grandchildren.
Mr. Antonelli was friends and investment partners with big names in
Washington real estate, such as steakhouse entrepreneur Ulysses G. "Blackie"
Augur. But even with his allies, he could be less than forthcoming during
business negotiations. He once asked 10 businessmen to join a venture that
required each participant to pitch in $100,000. According to the
Washingtonian magazine, one of the men asked Mr. Antonelli what he planned
to use the money for.
"If I have to answer all those questions, I don't want you in the deal," Mr.
Antonelli reportedly said.
He was a founding member of the National Italian American Foundation and
helped establish the Casa Italiana Language School adjoining Holy Rosary
Church in Washington. He played at least two games of gin rummy each week:
one at the University Club, where he was a member, and another at the
Touchdown Club, once housed downtown in a building he owned.