REAL ESTATE: Peanuts & Bananas

Real-Estate Juggler William Zeckendorf is a man who likes to “turn peanuts into bananas.” Last year, hoping to turn the trick again, he started work on a $35 million hotel and department-store center on a vacant plot in Denver. He soon ran into trouble. The plans called for a 1,000-car underground garage, but when Zeckendorf’s Webb & Knapp engineers started taking core samples, they found a 65-ft. formation of blue clay, sand and rock that would have to be excavated at a cost of about $3.000,000. Bill Zeckendorf told his men to keep on sampling. Last week, instead of a banana, they found a bonanza. They had struck gold 40 ft. down. Said Zeckendorf: “We will be able to sluice more than $1,000,000 worth of gold out of that sand. But I wouldn’t say that this development means the whole city of Denver should be dug up.”