O'Neal

DENVER -- NBA star Shaquille O'Neal has worked out a nearly $100 million deal to buy housing intended for thousands of lower-income Colorado residents.

O'Neal is a general partner with American Housing Preservation Corp. of Portland, Maine, to buy 21 communities from Greenwood Village, Colo.-based Urban Inc., an investor and developer of affordable housing.

The communities are in Denver, Pueblo, Buena Vista, Fort Lupton and Ca-Inon City.

	“	It would be easy for me to develop a housing community around a golf course or buy strip malls, but that's not how I want my book to go. ”
		— Shaquille O'Neal

``My dream is to own $1 billion a year in affordable housing,'' O'Neal told the Rocky Mountain News on Monday.

"It's a 'Shaq-sized deal'," said Michael Liberty, chairman and founder of American Housing. "Shaq is now the biggest landlord in the country," he said of the 7-foot-1-inch, 350-pound player.

Urban is headed by Denver natives Steve Shraiberg and Alfred S. Blum. For the past decade, the two have been looking for a buyer who wouldn't try to replace their 1,500 units with market-rate apartments and condos.

"It's not about the money. It's not about the number of units," Shraiberg said. "It's about the preservation of affordable housing for our low-income families and residents."

O'Neal and his uncle and business manager Mike Parris began investing in real estate about four years ago in New Jersey, where O'Neal once lived in the projects before his father joined the Army.

"We started buying homes out of foreclosure and paying $10,000 or $12,000 for them, fixing them up, and maybe selling them for $25,000 or $35,000," O'Neal said.

"It would be easy for me to develop a housing community around a golf course or buy strip malls, but that's not how I want my book to go."