For him, real estate is an excellent adventure.

Whether development, management, financing or all three, since the mid-1960's, Mark Blau has been equal to the challenge of making a success of diverse real estate opportunities, including commercial, residential, resorts, hospitality, new construction, conversions, renovations and leaseholds.

Partially the result of his roll-up-his-sleeves, get-out-onto-the-sitework ethic and an ability to thrive on what he calls the "nitty-gritty of development," Blau has earned a reputation as an on-time and on-the-money developer. But he is also one with the foresight to anticipate trends, take the necessary risks and, along the way, contribute to the resurgence of neighborhoods.

Witness The Duane Park Building, his latest development at Duane and Hudson Streets in TriBeCa, a 30-unit, 12-story luxury condominium loft residence. Blau purchased the much-sought-after 1911 limestone and brick building, a former printing plant, from Elie Hirschfeld in Fall 1996.

While he started with an extraordinary location, Blau's practice of eschewing the ordinary, renovating with good taste and providing extra value in his properties has resulted in an 85 percent sell-out in just five months, while achieving the highest per square foot residential prices in TriBeCa.

"I don't want to buy or build ordinary buildings," says Blau. "It's not fun. It's not difficult. I'm a bottom-line guy, but I want to be proud of my work."

At Duane Park, he has good reason to be just that, not only because he has set a new benchmark for residential prices in TriBeCa, but also because of the sensitive renovation of the building and its residences.

Each dramatic space, of which the smallest is over 2,700 square feet, features that elusive New York City luxury - an abundance of natural light. Buyers had the option to define the size, style and finishes of their residences. Custom cabinetry, professional-style kitchens with stone countertops, Maplewood floors, solid-core wood doors and 11[feet]2[inches] ceilings were all standard. As a sign of the times, residences were pre-wired for multiple phone lines and fast Internet access. The building also features one of the city's few electronic-select, automatic recycling systems.

But Blau didn't stop there. He is a major contributor and supporter of Friends of Duane Park, a not-for-profit group that is restoring the historic mid-19th Century design and character of the city's second oldest park, located directly opposite The Duane Park Building. In helping the park, Blau is practically creating a front lawn of greenery for his purchasers.

He also scored a culinary and retail coup with the announcement that four-star chef David Bouley will open "Bouley At Home," a 17,000 square-foot food emporium, in the ground floor retail space of The Duane Park Building.

A graduate of Syracuse University with a B.A. in Economics, Blau decided early in his career that he would rather put his financial acumen to work in real estate, where results are tangible, as opposed to his other logical choice, that of investment banker. His first development experience in the Midwest also convinced him of another career move. If he was going to be in real estate, he was also going to be in New York.

He began as an executive assistant to Fred Rose, where he was exposed to virtually every facet of residential development. About the legendary Rose, Blau says "He promised me great exposure and no money and was right on both counts."

He followed 18 months with Rose with an association with David W. Frankel, where he did conversions to cooperatives and had his first opportunity to take a job, the Phoenix apartment building on East 65th Street, from planning to finish and, not coincidentally, win an architect's award for residential design.

Blau, accurately assessing his limited opportunities to make what he calls "real money" in the family-owned real estate empires of the time, decided that it was time to go out on his own.

His first solo project, a taxpayer on West 95th Street and Broadway, carne complete with 185 violations. He renovated, rented, financed, and eventually sold the building site - and was on his way.

In the ensuing years, Blau has been a principal in a diversity of real estate deals. In the 1970's, he purchased and developed a 110-acre parcel in Palm Beach where he built, operated and sold a motel and one of the first tennis-oriented condominium projects in the area. He also purchased, renovated and sold as residential cooperatives four different buildings on Horatio, Hudson, Morton and Downing Streets in New York, accurately anticipating the gentrification of the West Village.

In the 1980's, he was on the forefront of residential conversion in Gramercy Park, then just beginning its journey toward being a hot and trendy neighborhood, with the conversion of the 100-unit 81 Irving Place.

He is also not a stranger to commercial development. His biggest building, a 234,000 square-foot property bought from Prudential Life Insurance Company, was 360 Lexington Avenue, which he purchased, renovated and managed for 10 years. Blau's company, HuDu Development Corp., retains offices in the building. ??? changed just before closing.

"They changed the playing field and then took the ball home, "says Blau, who eventually renovated the property and sold it to attorneys, photographers and graphic artists as one of the first commercial co-ops in New York City.

Blau has also been an innovator who is active in leaseholds at a number of Upper East Side cooperatives, primarily in the East 70's on Lexington and Madison Avenues.

What's next? Blau is putting together a Manhattan site on which he plans new construction, has an ongoing involvement in a 2,300-acre residential development with two golf courses in the Midwest, and, as always, has his eye out for properties suitable for renovation.

"I'm a value-added kind of guy," says Blau. "I identify emerging neighborhoods and then seek properties which lend themselves to high quality renovations."

Does his formula work? His success at Duane Park seems to prove it does. And ??? over.