The Outsider Makes it Big

The economy is foul, but money--big money--is being coined by the entrepreneurs. They are the creators and developers, the dreamers and hustlers who risk and dare. Many flop, but many others make it spectacularly Down in New Orleans, the skyline bordering on the storied French Quarter is being reshaped by a trim and handsome outsider, Joseph Canizaro The company that carries his name has just opened a 32-floor office tower, the first of many buildings in Ms Canal Place complex astride the roiling Mississippi Early in 1 980, dirt will fly for a 25-story structure and three-level retail mall next door Canizaro is a millionaire who surveys the city, which he is doing much to change, from an office chocked with multicolored hard hats (''The boys working on Canal Place gave me the blue one''); a huge book of Persian art from the Shah; scrawled notes of affection from his two daughters; and his Sicilian family coat of arms. That Canizaro could become the most talked-about young businessman between Texas and Florida in a fairly short time gives some clues to the condition of opportunity in America.

''I started out with not 50,'' Canizaro drawls. ''Nobody ever gave me anything.''Well, there was something: $600 in life insurance left by his father a Mississippi doctor. ''I took the $600 and played the stock market and the commodities market. I ran that $600 to $100,000 in less than two years.''

Canizaro's first market plunge was a bluff, ''I had been studying the market reading everything I could get my hands on. I saw that there were a lot of short sellers in Lukens Steel. I was sure that the stock would rise, but I didn't have the money to pay for it. I bluffed my broker into buying 1,500 shares. Three days later I sold it for a profit of $10,210.'' Canizaro was 20.

Through other trades, he swelled his market stake to six figures. ''But the stock market was a little slow for me. Man, I thought I could do better in commodities. In commodities you make a profit, then you buy more, you pyramid. I was shorting wheat like crazy when Eisenhower landed Marines in Lebanon. Everybody bought wheat, and it soared. I lost all my $100,000.'' Canizaro was 22.

He scraped up a little money by buying small lots in Gulfport, Miss. Then he went to New Orleans, the main chance. While the International Trade Mart was under construction, he marched up all 26 stories to the top. "That walk up was the toughest work I ever did. Rough." He looked out and spotted the site where Canal Place is rising today. He determined to rebuild, the scruffy riverfront. Canizaro was 28.

But New Orleans is a conservative town, its bankers an inbred bunch who do not cotton to outsiders. And, as Canizaro remarks, "for many years New Orleans was not pro-Italian." He put a $5,000 deposit on a downtown plot, then tried to borrow more to buy it. "There was enough income coming in from the property to service the debt if only somebody would lend me the money." The Establishment would not. Finally, he found a small bank to make the loan, and he started prospering. Canizaro was 30.

He grew richer by buying and developing other properties, financed mostly by banks in Baton Rouge and New York. Several years ago he traded some land to the city in exchange for the Canal Place site. He got financing from New York and Iran's Bank Omran. After the Shah fell, Canizaro bought out the Iranians. Now he is negotiating with French financiers to become partners Already the first Canal Place building promises to return a profit of $1 5 million a year. Major tenants are moving in: South Central Bell, Brooks Brothers Coopers & Lybrand. For the next buildings, Canizaro has signed up Britain's Trust Houses Forte to put in a 500-room luxury hotel and made a deal with Saks Fifth Avenue to open a store.

Today Canizaro is a power in the New Orleans Chamber of Commerce the Downtown Development District, the Symphony, and a director of the Tulane University Medical Center. To some, he will always be an outsider "You can walk through New Orleans today and hear rumors that I am going broke " Small chance of that. Still, he says, "I honestly believe that if I lost everything I would be successful again in a reasonably short period of time." Canizaro is 42.

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