Real estate developer

Trump, Donald John (1946- ), American real estate developer, born in Queens, New York City, educated at Fordham University and the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School. Known as one of Manhattan's most grandiose and controversial builders, Trump first made his mark at age 28 when he convinced the city to build a convention center on the site of the defunct Penn Central railroad yards, on which he had secured options; he also negotiated with the city and Hyatt Corporation to renovate the Commodore Hotel into the Grand Hyatt Hotel (1980). He is perhaps best known for building Trump Tower, on Fifth Avenue.

At its peak in the late 1980s Trump's billion- dollar empire included Trump Parc; more than 24,000 rental and co-op apartments; the Trump Shuttle airline, ownership of the New Jersey Generals of the United States Football League; and casinos in Atlantic City, New Jersey, including Trump's Castle, as well as sumptuous private homes. He was the author of Trump: The Art of the Deal (1987) and other books about his career.

By 1990 Trump was facing bankruptcy, unable to meet payments on over $2 billion in loans owed to banks. He was able to secure emergency financing at various times but had to cede operational control of most of his real estate to the creditor banks and gradually traded control of considerable parts of his empire including the Trump Shuttle, casinos, and the Plaza Hotel in order to secure more favorable debt restructuring.

Real estate developer

Jones, Jesse Holman (1874-1956), American financier, builder, and public official who played an important role in the management and disbursement of government funds during the Great Depression of the United States. Born in Robertson County, Tennessee, Jones was educated in the public schools in Tennessee and Texas.

In 1894 he entered the lumber business in Dallas, Texas, but four years later he left Dallas to establish himself in Houston. In 1902 he organized the South Texas Lumber Company, which he continued to operate for many years. During the so-called money panic of 1907, Jones organized the Bankers’ Mortgage Company in Houston to rescue and reorganize several unstable banks.

In 1908 Jones entered the construction business in Houston and began erecting buildings in the city’s downtown area. At one time people said that he had single-handedly created the skyline of Houston with his various hotels and business buildings.

By 1930 he was credited with owning more office buildings—in Houston, New York City, Saint Louis, Dallas, Fort Worth, and other cities—than any one man had ever owned. He organized the National Bank of Commerce in Houston in 1912 and helped lead the construction of the 50-mile ship channel to the Gulf of Mexico that opened in 1914, making Houston a seaport.

In 1917 Jones was appointed director general of military relief for the American Red Cross, and with banker Henry P. Davison he completely rearranged the organization. At the end of World War I (1914-1918), he and Davison organized the League of Red Cross Societies of the World (which later became the International Federation of the Red Cross).

In 1920 Jones returned to Houston, and in 1926 he purchased the Houston Chronicle and became the newspaper’s publisher. Active in Democratic politics, he vied for the 1928 presidential nomination and received the support of several states, including his own state of Texas.

When the Reconstruction Finance Corporation (RFC) was organized in 1932 to provide financial institutions and companies with emergency funding, President Herbert C. Hoover appointed Jones one of its five directors. The following year, when President Franklin D. Roosevelt took office, Jones assumed the chairmanship of the organization.

In 1940 Congress passed special legislation so that Jones might serve simultaneously as administrator of the Federal Loan Agency and as a member of the cabinet, and it was under this statute that he served as secretary of commerce from 1940 to 1945.

Five years before his death Jones published Fifty Billion Dollars (1951), an account of his disbursement of public money during the Great Depression of the 1930s and World War II (1939-1945).

Real estate developer

Huntington, Henry Edwards (1850-1927), American railway executive and philanthropist. The nephew of Collis Potter Huntington, he was born in Oneonta, New York. He left school at an early age to work in a hardware store.

In 1871 he became associated with his uncle's railway enterprises. After his uncle's death in 1900, he sold his major share in the Southern Pacific Company to the American financier Edward Harriman. Huntington became interested in urban mass transit, electric power development, and real estate and was responsible for much of the development of southern California.

On his estate at San Marino, California, he built a library and an art gallery, both of which are now maintained as a public trust. The library has his vast collection of books, especially incunabula, and of paintings, featuring British masters Thomas Gainsborough and Sir Joshua Reynolds.

Real estate developer

Campeau, Robert (1924- ), Canadian financier, born in Sudbury, Ontario. Campeau left school at 14 to work as a machinist and in 1949 became a carpenter, eventually building a small subdivision in Ottawa. His company, Campeau Construction Corp. was incorporated in 1953. Campeau began to develop commercial properties in the early 1960s and won important government contracts through his friendship with Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau.

In business Campeau was unorthodox and willing to take great risks. In 1980 he sought control of a leading Canadian financial institution, the Royal Trust. Although he failed, his next bid, for the United States-based Allied Stores, the third largest retailer in the country, was successful in 1986. He then took over Federated Department Stores (1988), which included the prestigious Bloomingdale's department store.

To pay for these new assets he sold others and borrowed heavily. As a result of his ensuing debts, he was forced first to auction off Bloomingdale's and then to step down as head of his corporation, sharing control with Olympia & York, a Canadian developer. Campeau then returned to real estate, taking a more cautious approach to investment.