Peter's Principles

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Business: Residential development and construction Executive: J. Peter Ministrelli, president Headquarters: West Bloomfield Township Revenue: $50 million (2007)

Photo by Brian Walters

Large, powerful companies often rise from modest beginnings. Take Henry Ford, for instance — an engineer for the Edison Illuminating Co. who labored late at night in his garage for two years until 1896, when he perfected an unusual little vehicle he dubbed “the quadricycle.” Just a few years later, he launched Ford Motor Co., one of the most celebrated companies in American history. While Ford’s rise to prominence is rare, other entrepreneurs have shared his passion for success (and his utilitarian roots).

Take J. Peter Ministrelli, who with his brother, Marvin, began Ministrelli Brothers Construction on Detroit’s west side in 1951. With $300 from their mother, a Model A from their father, a rented trailer, a wheelbarrow, and two shovels, the pair created one of Michigan’s most successful residential-building companies.

Today, Peter Ministrelli is building multimillion-dollar homes on one of the country’s most exclusive sites — Stone Eagle Golf Club in California’s famed Palm Desert (where Bill Gates is a founding member). Closer to home, Ministrelli is financing the development of a $40-million resort community in northern Michigan, overseeing millions of dollars in philanthropic gifts, and restoring some of the world’s finest classic cars.

From their modest start, Ministrelli and his brother went on to become the largest paving contractor in Michigan. Ministrelli, 84, was also a partner in Chateau Estates, a
mobile-home company with thousands of residents living in 38 states.

After taking the mobile-home company public in 1993, Ministrelli sold his shares and began splitting his business between West Bloomfield Township and Palm Springs, Calif. In upscale West Coast communities like Indian Wells, Rancho Mirage, and Palm Desert, he flourished as a developer of luxury homes — more than 500 and counting, ranging in price from $1 million to $5 million in prestigious residential golf developments — while continuing to operate Ministrelli Construction Co. in West Bloomfield.

Along the way, the soft-spoken, unassuming entrepreneur, who’s almost never seen without his Detroit Tigers baseball cap, became a breeder of world-class, award-winning Arabian horses, a hobby he eventually gave up for his current passion of collecting and restoring rare vintage automobiles.

Now in the midst of Michigan’s economic doldrums, Ministrelli has brought his California residential golf-development experience to Michigan, in rural Stanwood, just south of Big Rapids in Mecosta County. He and his nephews, Ron, Rich, and Bob Marino, last year bought the award-winning Tullymore Golf Club and 470 surrounding acres for development. They also purchased Tullymore’s companion course, the 13-year-old St. Ives Golf Club.

With Ministrelli’s financial backing and development expertise, the brothers are in the first phase of creating a resort community of 600 homes, called the Villages at Tullymore. The Marinos and Ministrelli are counting on the two nationally recognized courses to draw attention to the burgeoning community and to make it a destination for discerning golfers, as well as for vacation-home buyers and retirees.

“I hear people say, ‘Are you nuts building now with the market the way it is?’” Ministrelli says. “I’ve been in this business since 1955 building homes, and they have these peaks and they have these valleys. Now we’re in one of those valleys. The only unfortunate part is the valleys now are deeper, and the peaks are higher.”

Ministrelli says the key to success in a depressed economy is having the staying power to outlast the bad times. “Do I think in my mind that Michigan is going to hell? No. It’s probably going to be rough in 2008 and 2009, but it’s going to come back. It always has in the last 55 years. Besides, why would you want to buy when times are good and prices are high?”
 

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