Developer Alfred Sanzari dies at age 86.

Alfred N. Sanzari, founder and chairman of Alfred Sanzari Enterprises, one of New Jersey's most prestigious real estate development organizations, died at age 86 after a long illness.

A lifelong resident of Hackensack, N J, Mr. Sanzari was instrumental in the revitalization of Hackensack. One of the first to build a luxury apartment complex on Hackensack's "Hill" section in 1972, The Ivanhoe is still considered the premier apartment building in the state.

He also developed the 335,000 s/f Court Plaza Complex at the corner of Essex and Main Streets, directly across from the Bergen County Courthouse. And more recently, transformed an aging block of buildings on Essex Street into the spectacular 85,000 s/f, 4-story Alfred N. Sanzari Medical Arts Building, the office portion of which was later fully leased to Hackensack University Medical Center.

His tireless commitment to improving Bergen County is also evident in the development of Glenpointe, the 650,000 s/f mixed-use project in Teaneck. Sitting idle for decades, Mr. Sanzari had a "vision" for the project which would restore the economic vitality to the decaying area of the town.

A self-made man, with an interesting personality, Mr. Sanzari was extraordinarily aggressive yet often conservative, extremely confident but refreshingly humble, politically savvy yet always honest. Edward Schotz, partner in Cole, Schotz, Meisel, Forman and Leonard in Hackensack, a friend and business associate of Mr. Sanzari says, "He always displayed confidence and sincerity when he dealt with people ... and had a lot of integrity."

Even after all of his success, Sanzari was never one to rest on his laurels, continuing to go to work early and leave late every day of his 55-year career.

As a child during the Depression, Sanzari shined shoes for a nickel a pair after school in order to help his parents make their $30-a-month mortgage payment. With his father working at a paper factory in Bogota and his mother working at Paterson's silk mills, he and his five siblings were very poor and often hungry. So much so, that his three older brothers weren't able to finish high school because it wasn't economically feasible for them to quit their summer jobs to return for the senior year.

Al Sanzari knew the same fate awaited him, so he successfully convinced his principal to allow him to complete his junior and senior years in just one year, overcoming the first of many hurdles.

When World War II broke out, the 22-year old Sanzari was drafted to fight in Europe. Having worked for a sheet metal company, he was assigned to the OSS Mission Great Britain, where his skill was to drop supplies by air to the Allied Underground behind enemy lines.

While most men returning from the war felt they deserved some time off, Sanzari went immediately to see his former boss, Charles Reiss. He wanted his old job back. Instead, Reiss decided to help him start his own sheet metal sub-contracting business. The housing market boomed and so did Sanzari's sub-contracting business. He was finally in a financial position to begin pursuing his lifelong dream of building houses.

"Even in high school I knew I wanted to be a builder," Sanzari had said. "While other people dreamed of owning their own home, I dreamed of building mine."

Starting with four Cape Cods in Dumont priced at around $9,000, followed by 17 homes in Woodcliff Lake, Mr. Sanzari moved on to luxury homes and apartment complexes.

In addition to Glenpointe and Court Plaza, Mr. Sanzari has developed Heights Plaza, an office building in Hasbrouck Heights, Elmwood Park Plaza, an office building in Elmwood Park, several industrial parks and garden apartment complexes throughout Bergen County. Sanzari's company currently oversees a New Jersey portfolio of properties exceeding six-million-square-feet of commercial, industrial and residential real estate, including a mixed-use development, a hotel, garden apartments and a luxury high-rise, all of which are owned and managed by Alfred Sanzari Enterprises.

With intense drive and determination, Alfred Sanzari was eventually able to build the kind of life his parents only dreamed of after arriving in Bergen County from Italy in the early 1900s.

Mr. Sanzari served on dozens of Boards and was awarded numerous awards for his service to the community. He served on the Hackensack University Medical Center Board of Governors from 19861995; was Chairman of the Hackensack University Medical Center Building Committee; was the President and Chairman of the Builders Association of Northern New Jersey during 1964 to 1967; appointed by Tom Kean to serve as Commissioner of the Palisades Interstate Park Commission from 1985 to 1995; he was Treasurer of the Housing Authority of Bergen County from 1990-2000; he was appointed Life Director to the National Association of Homebuilders; was Honored as UNICO Citizen of the Year in 1973; was awarded the Good Neighbor Award two times by the New Jersey Business and Industry Association.

He is survived by his wife, Mary, and three sons and daughter-in-laws, Alfred and Patti; Ben and Barbara; and David and Joni; eight grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.

Memorial donations to The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson Research, P.O. Box 4777, NY, NY 10163 or The Hackensack University Medical Center Foundation, 360 Essex Street, Suite 301, Hackensack, NJ 07601-8556, would be appreciated.