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The 30-Minute Interview

A Conversation With Lester Petracca of Triangle Equities

Credit...Earl Wilson/The New York Times

Mr. Petracca, 59, is the president and chief executive of Triangle Equities, a developer based in Whitestone, Queens, that owns and operates more than a million square feet of commercial and residential property mainly in the boroughs. The company has an additional 500,000 square feet of property in development, including the Lighthouse Point mixed-use project in Staten Island. 

Mr. Petracca founded the company in 1986.

Interview conducted and condensed by

VIVIAN MARINO

Q. You essentially began your real estate career at Petracca & Sons, the construction company started by your father. Why did you leave?

A. I really wanted to put my efforts full time into real estate development. My brother Gene is running the construction company.

Q. Are you busy these days?

A. Yeah we are. We’re finishing up a mixed-use project in the Bronx.

Q. That’s the Triangle Plaza office-retail project in the Melrose neighborhood.

A. Yes it is — which is 88,000 square feet of mixed-use, commercial and retail, and that’s a $35 million to $40 million project. We’re about 80, 85 percent complete with construction. We expect that to be done in May. Metropolitan College of New York will occupy half of the second floor. We’re in negotiations with two tenants for the remaining space. On the ground floor we have a Fine Fare, Boston Market and Vistasite Eye Care.

Q. What’s the status of Lighthouse Point?

A. We are in very final approvals.

You’re probably looking at starting construction in the second or third quarter. It’s two phases: the hotel and the historic buildings will come in the second phase.

Q. The project is a long time in the making.

A. We are seven years into the process. There were a lot of moving parts. First of all, you’re putting 485,000 square feet on three acres. It will be the most complex construction project that we will have done to date. We’re building over the M.T.A. tunnel. And there are six historic buildings involved that are in a very serious state of deterioration, and we’re going to restore them.

Q. What’s happening at Arverne East in Far Rockaway, Queens?

A. We have planned 1,600 units of housing and about 400,000 to 500,000 square feet of commercial space.

The first phase, which is about 200 units of housing, will break ground probably in the second quarter. There’s a lot of public infrastructure that’s necessary. There will be green space and parks. They’ll be a mix of affordable and market rate — I think both condos and rentals.

Q. All of your development projects are outside Manhattan.

A. Our niche is urban borough development — primarily Staten Island, Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx.

The bulk of our portfolio would be retail, then office.

Q. What’s your criteria for choosing development sites?

A. A lot of our developments are public-private partnerships in the way of R.F.P.s — request for proposals.

We kind of create value by embracing complexity. I like to joke, our projects have a lot of hair on them, and I don’t.

Q. I understand you’re an avid fisherman.

A. I am a sport fisherman, very much so. I travel all over on my Garlington 61; it’s a custom sport fishing craft. It is currently in Costa Rica.

Q. So you sometimes run your business on the boat.

A. I have global communications on my boat. I’m always available by global phone and I am always able to get my emails.

Q. What was your biggest catch?

A. The biggest blue marlin that I caught was about 750 pounds, in Bermuda. We released it.

One of my sons caught what we call a grander, a 1,000-pound blue marlin, also in Bermuda, which he released.

A version of this article appears in print on  , Section B, Page 8 of the New York edition with the headline: Lester Petracca. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe

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