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Milt Peterson, the legendary Greater Washington developer behind the likes of Fair Lakes, Burke Centre, National Harbor and downtown Silver Spring, has died. He was 85.
The founder of the Peterson Cos., likely to sit on the Mount Rushmore of D.C.-area real estate icons, passed away Wednesday morning of natural causes at his home, surrounded by family, a spokeswoman for the Fair Lakes-based real estate company said.
Peterson founded what would become Peterson Cos. on Oct. 21, 1965, when he bought a small subdivision in Vienna under the name Laurick Development Corp. and built, marketed and sold 15 houses.
“I liked driving that truck and ran the machines myself. I bought a loader and did my own excavation,” he told the Washington Business Journal in 2015 for a feature on his company’s 50th anniversary. “And I liked it, for a while. Then I said, ‘I think there’s something better for me to do.’ I got out of housing and got into land acquisition, land development. I didn’t see myself…
Read the full story from the Washington Business Journal.