By Bill Strother, Herald-Times
bstrother@heraldt.com
The Blooomington-based developer who wants to build two new downtown hotels and once was among the biggest apartment landlords in the city is facing a financial crisis that threatens holdings in several states.
Peter Dvorak, who began his real estate career in the Bloomington student rental market in 1989 at age 21, once controlled 2,000 rental units here and in Indianapolis.
Early this decade, he and his company, Pinnacle Properties, changed directions, focusing on purchase, renovation and resale or lease of large, often disused or distressed industrial/commercial properties.
His first involvement in such work was as a minority stakeholder in the renovation of the former Thomson television assembly plant property on Bloomington's near west side.
Since that time, his company or companies he controls have recycled white elephant factories and other industrial facilities in a number of states, including Georgia, Tennessee, Florida and Michigan, as well as in Indiana.
Dvorak announced earlier this year that plans to build a hotel at the corner of Third Street and College Avenue downtown were being delayed because credit markets for such projects had dried up.